THE  ]  [BRARY 


THE  UNIVERSITY 


OF  CALIFORNIA 


LOS  ANGELES 


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^EW  JER§£Y 

MSS*^.-*" — -rfV.a»u  «...    ^*^l~ 


Courtesy,   Baker   Art   Gallery, 
Columbus,  Ohio. 


WILLIAM  McKINLEY. 


Delivered  at  the  Annual  McKinley  Day  Banquet  of 

THE  TIPPECANOE  CLUB,  CLEVELAND,  OHIO, 

Commemorative  of  the  Birth  of 

William 

*    *    + 

Together  with  Notable  Addresses,  Commemorative 
of  the  Life  and  Services 

of 

THE   MARTYRED   PRESIDENT, 
Delivered  on  Other  Occasions, 


including    the    Proceedings    of   the    Legislature  of 
New  York  following  the  Death  of  McKinley. 


Published  by 

The  Tippecanoe  Club  Company 
Cleveland,  Ohio. 


COPYRIGHTED  JANUARY,  1913 
BY  THE  TIPPECANOE  CLUB  COMPANY 


£ 


CONTENTS. 

Introduction 


W.  E.  Coates 
McKinley  Day  in  1904 1 

McKinley  as  President 3 

Ralph  D.  Cole 

President  McKinley 11 

Caspar  Wistar  Hiatt 

Memories  of  McKinley 21 

Andrew  L.  Harris 

McKinley,  the  Representative  American 33 

Mattoon  M.  Curtis 

The  Place  of  McKinley  in  History 45 

Paul  F.  Sutphen 

McKinley  the  Man 55 

John  J.  McCook 

William  McKinley 59 

John  A.  Shauck 

McKinley 66 

John  Wesley  Hill 

William    McKinley 77 

Dan  F.  Bradley 

McKinley — Man  and  Patriot 89 

Andrew  B.  Meldrum 


WITHDRAWN 

550250 


Memorial  Address 107 

John  Hay 

Proceedings  of  the  New  York  Legislature 135 

Memorial  Address 153 

Charles  Emory  Smith 

Dedicatory  Address 179 

William  R.  Day 

Dedicatory  Poem 201 

James  Whitcomb  Riley 

Dedicatory  Address 203 

Theodore  Roosevelt 

William   McKinley 213 

Marlin  E.  Olmsted 

William   McKinley 223 

Charles  R.  Miller 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Portrait  of  William  McKinley Frontispiece 

Facing  page 
Birthplace  of  McKinley,  Niles,  Ohio 8 

The  McKinley  Home,  Canton,  Ohio 30 

Portrait  of  Myron  T.  Herrick 56 

Portrait  of  Marcus  A.  Hanna 74 

Passing  the  Reviewing  Stand  at  the  Dedication 

of  the  McKinley  Monument,  Canton,  0. ...   104 

McKinley  Statue,  Columbus,  Ohio 176 

McKinley  Statue  and  Monument,  Canton,  Ohio  196 

Inscription  on  Monument,  Canton,  Ohio 198 

McKinley  Monument  (front  view)  Canton,  Ohio  210 
McKinley  Monument  (rear  view)  Canton,  Ohio  220 


INTRODUCTION 

+      +      + 

It  is  the  pride  and  boast  of  America  that  the 
humblest  boy,  whose  eyes  first  see  the  light  in  pov- 
erty and  obscurity,  may  rise  to  the  most  exalted  po- 
sition in  the  land.  It  is  the  pride  and  boast  of  America 
that  the  humblest  do  rise  to  become  first  in  power  and 
first  in  the  affections  of  the  people. 

It  is  singularly  true  that  of  the  three  Presidents, 
whose  names  are  enrolled  on  the  immortal  tablet  of 
martyrdom,  all  were  born  poor  and  obscure  with  no 
more  possibilities  before  them  than  those  that  con- 
front every  boy,  that,  today,  looks  upward  to  the 
shining  sun  or  the  blue  sky  above  him. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  the  son  of  "one  of  the  most 
shiftless  of  the  poor  whites  of  Kentucky,"  climbed  to 
his  straw  bed  in  their  log  cabin  hut,  took  off  his 
homespun,  dyed  with  walnut  bark,  after  a  day's  hard 
work  and  a  supper  of  corn  cake,  unknown  and  piti- 
fully poor.  He  had  split  rails  which  he  exchanged 
for  the  cloth  for  a  pair  of  trousers  at  the  rate  of  four 
hundred  rails  per  yard.  He  became  the  great  ruler 
of  a  great  nation  in  a  great  crisis.  By  a  stroke  of 
his  pen  slavery  was  abolished  and  the  black  man  made 
free.  Under  his  leadership  the  nations  saw  human 
freedom  established  as  a  world  principle.  Under  his 
leadership,  the  nation,  founded  by  Washington  was 
preserved,  and  the  Union — one  and  inseparable — 
cemented  forever.  His  name  is  today  one  of  the  most 
illustrious  that  shine  on  the  pages  of  history. 

James  A.  Garfield,  who  barefoot  drove  the  mules 
along  the  tow  path  of  the  Ohio  canal,  born  in  the  one- 
room  log  house  in  Orange  township,  was  also  poor. 


The  lessons  of  his  life  are  a  rich  national  legacy.  From 
the  tow-path  to  the  White  House — what  an  object  les- 
son for  all  who  would  aspire.  The  pathos  of  his  death 
and  the  greatness  of  his  life  shine  forth  in  undimin- 
ished  luster  as  the  years  advance. 

William  McKinley,  like  Lincoln  and  Garfield,  rose 
from  obscurity  and  humble  surroundings  to  preside 
over  the  destinies  of  a  great  nation.  Like  Lincoln  he 
was  an  epoch  making  president,  like  Garfield,  he  was 
a  soldier,  a  statesman  and  an  orator.  His  charm  of 
manner  and  consideration  for  others  made  him  popu- 
lar wTith  all  he  met.  His  enemies  were  only  those  that 
were  such  from  envy  or  malice.  He  had  few.  He  never 
hesitated  to  uphold  the  principles  that  he  believed 
were  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  Nation.  When,  tem- 
porarily, those  principles  were  repudiated  by  the  peo- 
ple, he  calmly,  prophetically  as  time  demonstrated, 
held  that  they  would  ultimately  triumph,  and  they 
did.  When  war  came  his  wisdom  and  true  diplomacy 
were  manifest.  He  was  a  true  leader  and  a  wise  coun- 
selor. 

Of  the  three  martyred  presidents,  McKinley  was 
particularly  identified  with  the  history  of  the  Tippe- 
canoe  Club.  The  Club  has  never  failed  to  observe 
appropriately  the  anniversary  of  his  birth — McKinley 
Day. 

So  rich  and  varied  have  been  the  addresses  on 
these  occasions,  that  their  publication  in  book  form, 
together  with  other  notable  memorial  addresses  on 
McKinley,  has  been  undertaken. 

W.  R.  COATES, 
President,  Tippecanoe  Club. 


WILLIAM  McKINLEY 

*  *      + 
Born  January  29,  1843 

Died  September  14,  1901. 

*  +      + 


McKINLEY  DAY  IN  1904 

Observance  of  McKinley  Day,  at  first  confined  to 
regular  meetings  of  the  Tippecanoe  Club,  was  cele- 
brated on  January  29th,  1904,  by  a  banquet  at  The 
Hollenden. 

The  speakers  on  this  occasion  were  Hon.  Paul 
Rowland,  Lieut.  Governor  Warren  G.  Harding,  Wil- 
liam R.  Hopkins,  Hon.  John  J.  Sullivan,  Edward  M. 
Baker,  William  E.  Patterson,  and  Francis  W.  Gush- 
man,  Congressman  from  the  state  of  Washington. 

At  this  time,  under  the  direction  of  Secretary 
I.  E.  Seiple,  the  beautiful  and  impressive  service  of 
saluting  the  flag,  followed  by  a  silent  toast  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  was  first  carried  out. 

Toastmaster,  Harvey  D.  Goulder,  introduced  the 
speakers  and  in  introducing  Mr.  Cushman  referred  to 
him  as  "The  Abraham  Lincoln  of  the  Northwest." 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  the  address  of  Mr. 
Cushman  is  not  obtainable. 

We  insert  however  a  couple  of  selections  from 
the  addresses  taken  from  the  files  of  The  Cleveland 
Plain  Dealer  in  its  report  of  the  banquet. 

HON.  FRANCIS  W.  CUSHMAN  : 
"Patriotic,  proud  old  Ohio,  always  ready  to  meet 
every  crisis !  I  bare  my  head  to  men  like  Garfield  and 
McKinley.  They  drew  from  their  environment  and 
their  glory  is  reflected  in  every  patriotic  son  and 
daughter  of  the  old  State. 

The  administration  of  President  McKinley  was 
not  an  accident,  it  was  a  conspicuous  administration, 

1 


suited  to  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion  and  replete 
with  far-sighted  statesmanship.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  character  and  simple  faith.  'God's  will  be  done' 
was  a  characteristic  utterance  of  the  man. 

Let  us  say  as  he  said:  'God's  will  be  done'." 

LIEUT.  GOVERNOR  WARREN  G.  HARDING: 
"One  of  the  greatest  of  the  names  that  mark  our 

political  annals  is  that  of  William  McKinley. 

He  unsheathed  the  sword  in  behalf  of  humanity 

and  in  time  of  peace  he  turned  the  prow  of  the  Ship 

of  State  into  the  Sea  of  Destiny  and  it  led  to  a  new 

era  in  American  nationality." 


McKINLEY  AS  PRESIDENT 

HON.  RALPH  D.  COLE, 
Findlay,  Ohio. 

This  address  was  delivered  on  January  30th,  1905, 
at  the  annual  banquet  of  The  Tippecanoe  Club,  held 
in  the  Assembly  Rooms  of  the  Club,  Masonic  Temple. 

Among  the  speakers  were  Judge  Robert  W. 
Tayler,  Governor  Myron  T.  Herrick,  Hon.  John  J. 
Sullivan  and  Hyman  D.  Davis. 

Toastmaster,  James  H.  Hoyt,  introduced  the  speaker. 


The  history  of  civilization  has  produced  no 
grander  type  of  manhood  than  has  risen  from  the 
Western  Reserve  of  Ohio.  You  are  renowned  for  il- 
lustrious names.  You  cherish  with  pardonable  pride 
the  memory  of  great  governors,  great  senators  and 
you  are  making  a  specialty  of  great  presidents.  To 
be  born  in  the  Western  Reserve  is  to  be  a  presidential 
possibility. 

The  northwestern  section  of  Ohio  is  yet  young. 
We  can  boast  of  no  governors,  senators  and  presi- 
dents, but  we  have  all  the  elements  of  material  wealth 
and  possess  a  substantial  and  unsullied  citizenship. 
Before  the  circle  of  another  century  is  complete,  we 
hope  to  stand  by  your  side,  kindred  in  greatness  as 
well  as  in  wealth.  Our  section  is  unfolding  with  the 
gentleness  yet  splendor  of  the  sunrise,  and  there  civ- 
ilization's brightest  sunbeams  are  destined  to  fall. 

But  for  the  present  we  yield  the  palm  to  the  West- 
ern Reserve.  When  I  contemplate  a  citizenship  in- 
spired by  the  purest  patriotism,  character  in  its  full 
orbed  perfection  and  manhood  in  its  majesty,  I  in- 
stinctively turn  to  that  quadrant  of  the  horizon,  re- 

3 


4 

splendent  with  the  fame  of  Garneld  and  Giddings, 
Whittelsey  and  Wade,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  and  those 
two  other  illustrious  sons  of  Ohio  whose  lives  have 
been  so  intertwined  that  their  memory  shall  live  in- 
termingled and  immortal  in  history,  Marcus  A.  Hanna 
and  William  McKinley. 

William  McKinley  has  many  claims  to  the  venera- 
tion of  his  countrymen,  but  his  record  as  president 
has  magnified  his  name  among  American  Immortals. 

When  he  was  nominated  for  the  presidency,  the 
gloom  of  Democracy  overhung  the  nation.  The  multi- 
tudinous misfortunes  of  Democracy  aggregated  a  stu- 
pendous disaster.  The  people  appealed  to  the  apostle 
of  protection  for  relief.  He  answered:  "Open  the 
mills."  Bryan  said:  "Open  the  mints."  McKinley 
knew  that  wealth  was  not  the  creation  of  legis- 
lative decree,  but  the  product  of  the  gratuity  of  na- 
ture combined  with  the  strength  and  skill  of  the 
muscle  and  mind  of  man.  Democracy  said:  "More 
money  will  make  more  business."  They  confused 
cause  and  effect.  Money  don't  make  business.  Busi- 
ness makes  money.  The  people  ratified  the  principles 
of  the  Republican  party  and  commissioned  McKinley 
to  redeem  the  pledges  of  the  platform.  A  special  ses- 
sion of  congress  was  called.  The  gold  standard  was 
"irrevocably  established ;"  the  Dingley  bill  was  enacted 
into  law;  industry  revived  as  if  by  magic;  money 
sufficient  for  all  the  demands  of  trade  flooded  the  chan- 
nels of  commerce;  prosperity  emptied  the  horn  of 
plenty  into  the  lap  of  poverty,  and  the  nation  awoke  to 
a  period  of  unparalleled  progress. 

With  what  pride  and  gratification  he  must  have 
contemplated  the  full  fruition  of  his  life's  labors! 
"With  what  fervor  of  devotion  he  must  have  thanked 


5 

Almighty  God  for  the  extraordinary  circumstances  of 
his  life !"  While  holding  the  highest  of  earthly  honors, 
eighty  millions  of  his  countrymen  were  reaping  the 
rich  rewards  of  his  beneficent  policy.  To  what  other 
American  has  it  been  given  to  behold  the  great  work 
of  his  congressional  career  crowned  with  effective  ad- 
ministration, while  he  himself  occupied  the  chair  of 
chief  executive. 

Prosperity  re-established  at  home,  he  was  called 
to  the  broader  fields  of  foreign  policy  and  was  destined 
to  achieve  international  renown.  The  ancient  doc- 
trine of  holding  aloof  from  Old  World  strife,  which 
comes  down  to  us  with  the  sanctity  and  weight  of 
the  wisdom  of  Washington,  was  to  pass  away  with  the 
sunset  of  the  old  century.  New  problems  were  to  be 
solved;  new  relations  to  be  established.  We  served 
notice  of  ejectment  upon  a  European  monarch  from 
an  American  possession.  It  was  done  not  for  any 
selfish  purpose,  but  in  the  name  of  and  for  humanity. 

The  story  of  Spanish  oppression  had  aroused  the 
patriotic  spirit  of  the  American  people.  The  clamor 
for  vengeance  arose  like  the  mutterings  of  distant 
thunder.  It  grew  in  volume  and  intensity  until  the 
whole  nation  trembled  as  on  the  eve  of  action.  It 
swayed  the  press  of  the  country;  the  pulpit  swelled 
the  chorus  and  even  congress,  like  a  rudderless  ves- 
sel on  an  angry  sea,  was  tempest  tossed  on  the  billows 
of  passion.  "Let  us  have  war,"  the  nation  demanded. 
But  we  were  not  prepared  for  war  and  McKinley 
knew  it.  Deserted  and  denounced  by  friends,  ma- 
ligned by  enemies,  motives  misjudged  by  a  misguided 
public,  he  stood  almost  alone  and  stemmed  the  tide 
until  the  army  and  navy  were  ready  for  the  conflict. 
Then  like  a  Hercules  he  let  loose  the  thunderbolts  of 


6 

war  and  in  one  hundred  days  Cuba  was  free  and  Spain 
possessionless  in  the  Pacific. 

They  charged,  during  the  campaign,  that  he  was 
without  courage;  that  continued  obeisance  to  the 
money  power  had  sapped  the  strength  from  his  moral 
nature.  But  the  high  tribunal  of  history,  reflecting 
the  common  judgment  of  his  countrymen,  has  reversed 
that  opinion.  The  annals  of  the  past  present  few  more 
heroic  figures  than  McKinley,  heedless  of  public  indig- 
nation, immovably  centered  in  his  lofty  purposes,  as 
he  stayed  the  billows  of  battle  between  the  destruction 
of  the  Maine  and  the  declaration  of  war. 

The  results  of  the  war  were  twofold.  It  solidified 
the  Republic.  It  re-cemented  the  bonds  of  the  Ameri- 
can Union.  It  made  us  the  greatest  of  world  powers. 
It  gave  us  a  position  of  pre-eminence  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth.  A  re-united  nation — a  world  power 
— is  the  gift  of  William  McKinley  to  the  American 
people. 

Events  subsequent  to  the  Spanish-American  war 
have  made  it  evident  that  we  are  henceforth  to  per- 
form a  leading  part  in  the  world's  work.  We  can- 
not escape  this  responsibility.  Destiny  has  so  decreed 
and  it  is  ours  to  obey.  We  are  Americans.  We  face 
duty  with  fearless  hearts  and  look  to  the  future  with 
full  faith  in  our  power  to  achieve.  Our  flag  floats  on 
every  sea  and  is  honored  by  every  nation.  The  pres- 
tige gained  abroad  during  that  war  enabled  us  to  pre- 
vent the  dismemberment  of  China.  ^It  secured  the 
abrogation  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty  and  gave  the 
United  States  full  and  exclusive  right  to  construct, 
own  and  operate  an  inter-oceanic  canal.  The  old  world 
now  waits  on  the  Republic  to  usher  in  the  reign  of 
universal  peace. 


7 

McKinley's  policy  of  expansion  was  denounced 
as  "imperialism."  Demagogues  saw  in  him  a  sem- 
blance to  Napoleon.  In  their  impassioned  moments 
they  portrayed  a  coronation  ceremony  in  which  he 
crowned  himself  king.  But  his  was  not  the  despotic 
doctrine  of  imperialism,  but  the  Democratic  doctrine 
of  expansion.  Expansion  has  been  the  law  of  our  na- 
tional development.  He  who  denounces  the  policy  of 
William  McKinley  challenges  the  patriotism  of  Thomas 
Jefferson.  The  inhabitants  of  our  Pacific  possessions 
must  first  share  the  blessings  of  Christian  civilization 
and  we  can  safely  intrust  their  final  disposition  to  the 
generation  that  shall  witness  this  achievement.  We 
gave  Cuba  grateful,  generous,  magnanimous  welcome 
into  the  sisterhood  of  nations,  and  in  due  course  of 
time,  we  shall  see  the  isles  of  the  seas  which  girdle 
the  earth  transformed  into  young  Republics  by  the 
magical  touch  of  American  power. 

The  destruction  of  sectional  spirit  is  perhaps  the 
greatest  service  he  has  rendered  his  country.  He 
strove  with  all  the  strength  of  heart  and  mind  to  heal 
the  wounds  of  war.  His  was  the  high  honor  of  re- 
uniting North  and  South,  of  bridging  the  broad  chasm 
of  sectionalism.  By  his  character  and  statesmanship, 
by  the  magnetism  of  his  words,  the  genius  of  his  intel- 
lect and  the  commanding  power  of  his  impressive  per- 
sonality, he  won  the  hearts  of  the  South  and  she  loved 
him  as  truly  as  if  he  had  sprung  from  her  loins. 

Mark  but  a  few  years  ago  his  majestic  entrance 
into  Dixie,  surpassing  in  real  magnificence  Caesar's  tri- 
umphant return  to  the  city  of  Rome.  That  wealth  of 
welcome  accorded  him  is  unmistakable  evidence  of  un- 
feigned devotion  to  the  federal  government.  As  if  to 
honor  a  home-coming,  conquering  hero,  battle  scarred 


8 

veterans  of  the  Confederacy  rose  up  to  greet  his  com- 
ing. From  the  Potomac  to  the  Southern  Sea,  his  course 
was  thronged  with  millions  of  his  admiring  country- 
men, envious  all  to  do  him  honor,  none  to  do  him  harm. 
And  when  that  fiend  incarnate,  inspired  with  anarch- 
istic hate  laid  him  low,  execrations  dire  against  the 
abominable  deed  and  sorrow's  sweet  incense,  like 
Gilead's  balm,  to  comfort  the  bereaved  ascended  alike 
from  all  sections. 

Let  not  this  impressive  lesson  of  his  sublime  life 
be  lost  upon  the  generations  that  shall  follow.  The 
intense  bitterness  of  sectional  animosity  is  gone,  and 
forever.  Patriotism,  as  broad  as  the  limits  of  the  Re- 
public, as  holy  as  the  memory  of  our  martyrs,  inspires 
the  American  people.  We  have  lived  to  see  the  destruc- 
tion of  sectional  spirit  and  the  star  spangled  banner 
the  theme  of  universal  song;  to  hear  the  welcome  tid- 
ings of  the  South  Lands  redeeming  loyalty  mingling 
in  harmony  with  Webster's  chorus  of  "Liberty  and 
Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable." 

The  superficial  cannot  survive  the  centuries.  The 
seal  of  time's  approval  seldom  stamps  the  unworthy. 
False  standards  may  exalt  the  fictitious  for  a  time,  but 
the  memory  of  mankind  was  made  for  merit.  Sincere 
the  life,  secure  the  fame  of  this  noble  man  in  the  af- 
fections of  his  countrymen.  When  the  fleeting  events 
of  the  present  century  dwindle  to  a  mere  speck  be- 
hind the  hilltops  of  time,  renowned  with  Washington 
and  Lincoln  shall  tower  the  majestic  form  of  William 
McKinley. 


Courtesy  of  Edw.   K.  Wilson. 
Author — "It  is   God's   \Yay." 


McKINLEY'S  BIRTHPLACE, 

NILES,    OHIO. 


PRESIDENT  McKINLEY 

CASPAR  WISTAR  HIATT,  D.  D. 

This  address  was  delivered  at  the  McKinley  Day 
Banquet  of  the  Tippecanoe  Club  held  in  the  Assembly 
Rooms  of  the  Club,  January  29th,  1906. 

Attorney  General  Wade  Ellis,  J.  Adam  Bede,  Con- 
gressman from  Minnesota,  Carmi  A.  Thompson  and 
W.  S.  FitzGerald  were  among  the  speakers. 

Toastmaster,  Homer  H.  McKeehan,  introduced  the 
speaker. 


I  bring  to  you  a  name  which  in  the  closing  days  of 
the  nineteenth  century  at  once  epitomized  and  glorified 
the  history  of  our  land.  It  is  a  name  suggestive  of 
the  plume  and  plaid,  the  gentleness  and  valor  of  the 
Highland  Clans.  A  name  tinted  with  the  heather  and 
ribbed  with  the  strength  of  Scotland's  hills.  A  name 
touched  with  the  solemn  piety  of  John  Knox,  the  ten- 
der melodies  of  Burns,  the  pictured  chivalry  of  Walter 
Scott.  A  name  resounding  with  the  clash  of  claymore 
and  the  strains  of  pibroch  and  the  patriotic  shouts  of 
Robert  Bruce  and  Rhoderic  Dhu.  A  name  transplant- 
ing all  the  sterling  virtues  of  the  Gaelic  thistle  into  the 
hospitable  climate  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  A  name 
like  that  of  Washington  and  Lincoln,  a  chronicle  of  a 
crucial  time  when  the  nation  met  a  crisis  and  the  crisis 
raised  a  man,  efficient,  sufficient  for  its  mastery— 
McKINLEY. 

Passing  by  the  biographic  chapter,  so  full  of  in- 
terest, that  story  of  development  which  all  the  world 
has  learned  by  heart,  we  look  upon  him  standing  at 
the  top  of  his  career,  the  man  at  Washington  holding 
the  fate  of  the  republic  in  his  hands. 

11 


12 

We  are  not  particular  what  we  call  ourselves  to- 
night, Buckeyes,  Republicans,  Americans,  Anglo- 
Saxons,  citizens  of  the  world  at  large,  or  even  Demo- 
crats, we  all  agree  to  his  abundant  eulogy.  Ohio  may 
cherish  his  cradle  and  his  sepulchre  as  shrines  where 
each  new  generation  may  become  inspired.  The  Re- 
publican party  may  inscribe  his  record  on  its  scroll  of 
deathless  history,  as  the  consistent  and  courageous 
exposition  of  its  principles,  but  in  the  larger  area  of  all 
America  and  all  Christendom,  one  thought  eclipses 
every  other — the  memory  of  McKinley,  the  President 
—who  by  the  greatness  of  his  personality  preserved 
for  all  mankind,  a  faith  in  the  enduring  fortunes  of 
democratic  liberty.  And  this  I  think  will  be  his  fame 

in  history. 

We  honor  him  for  what  he  thought  and  what  he 

was  and  what  he  did. 

And  first  we  remember  what  he  thought.  He 
was  a  man  without  political  credulity  but  not  without 
a  creed.  His  creed  was  not  a  slated  set  of  principles 
prepared  by  other  hands,  but  truths  which  he  had  wit- 
nessed in  the  progress  of  events  and  tested  for  himself 
upon  the  fields  of  life.  Life  was  for  him  a  school, 
shifting  continually  but  never  breaking  up.  And  so 
it  came  to  pass  that  the  boy  of  the  Western  Reserve, 
the  private  in  the  ranks  of  blue,  the  lawyer,  the 
legislator,  the  governor,  the  president,  was  always 
learning  things  which  were  worthy  of  a  resolute  be- 
lief. 

He   believed   that    democracy    is   a    larger   word 

than  democrat,  republic  a  larger  word  than  republican, 
that  the  People  is  always  greater  than  the  party,  what- 
ever be  its  name. 

He  believed  that  the  American  people  held  their 

financial  honor  to  be  as  sacred  as  their  flag. 


13 

He  believed  that  the  government  should  honor  all 
its  obligations,  and  keep  out  of  debt,  paying  as  it  goes. 

He  believed  in  the  protection  of  industry  as  the 
surest  prop  of  the  public  treasury,  and  the  guarantee 
of  smiling  enterprise  across  the  land. 

He  believed  in  using  revenues  for  expenses  and  to 
liquidate  the  public  debt  and  also  to  provide  an  ample 
pension  for  the  veteran  defenders  of  our  flag. 

He  believed  in  merit  as  the  unalterable  requisite 
of  civil  service,  and  that  this  should  be  acknowledged 
whatever  party  happened  to  control  affairs. 

He  believed  that  equality  of  rights  should  be  main- 
tained and  our  laws  be  always  and  everywhere  re- 
spected and  obeyed. 

He  believed  that  trusts  which  arbitrarily  ruled  the 
world  of  trade,  should  be  regarded  as  oppressors  and 
should  be  visited  with  all  the  rigor  of  the  legislative 
arm. 

He  believed  that  there  should  be  no  immunity,  for 
the  violator  of  the  law,  be  it  individual,  corporation 
or  community. 

He  believed  in  the  protection  of  every  citizen, 
from  the  humblest  black  man  in  the  South  to  the  most 
distant  missionary  threatened  by  the  Boxer  mobs  of 
inland  China. 

He  believed  that  a  short  day  is  better  than  a  short 
dollar  for  the  workingman. 

He  believed  that  the  aim  of  the  government  should 
be  internal  happiness  and  the  relation  of  external 
friendship  with  every  nation  in  the  world. 

He  believed  that  war  should  never  be  entered  upon 
until  every  agency  of  peace  had  failed. 

He  believed  that  war  for  territory  is  wholly  inex- 
cusable, but  that  a  war  for  humanity  is  ever  honor- 


14 

able,  and  that  when  territory  comes  as  the  result  of 
such  a  war,  this  brings  responsibility — a  trust  from 
which  the  man  of  duty  will  not  shrink. 

He  believed  that  the  United  States  has  never 
struck  a  blow  except  for  civilization,  and  has  never 
struck  its  colors. 

He  believed  that  the  foundation  of  the  republic 
is  liberty;  its  superstructure  peace. 

He  believed  that  patriotism  should  be  faithful  as 
well  as  fervent ;  statesmanship  wise  as  well  as  fearless. 

He  believed  that  duty  is  not  always  easy,  but  al- 
ways sure  and  safe  and  honorable,  and  that  with  na- 
tions, as  with  individuals,  "Duty  determines  destiny." 

And  because  he  believed  these  things  and  a  hun- 
dred more  I  cannot  mention  here,  he  believed  in  the 
organization  which  had  fixed  these  principles  upon  its 
shield,  with  the  pen  of  Lincoln  and  the  sword  of  Grant. 
He  believed  in  the  Republican  party. 

And  tonight  we  think  of  what  he  was. 

I  do  not  speak  of  that  personal  character  so  deep 
and  pure,  but  of  those  qualities  revealed  in  public  life. 
And  earliest  among  these  qualities  was  his  sanity.  I 
see  him  reasoning  with  patience  where  most  men  would 
have  turned  away  with  passion  or  contempt.  I  see  his 
modesty,  permitting  others  to  think  that  they  were 
leading  him,  when,  like  a  shepherd,  he  was  in  reality 
guiding  on  the  flock  with  rod  and  staff.  I  see  his  ever 
present  dignity.  He  never  degenerated  into  senseless 
declamation.  His  talk  was  never  cheap.  His  speeches 
are  the  best  of  all  that  presidents  have  uttered,  except- 
ing only  those  of  Lincoln  to  which  they  bore  a  strong 
resemblance,  with  which  they  were  in  closest  sympathy. 
I  see  his  fairness  to  the  opposition,  despite  expostula- 
tion on  the  part  of  friends.  I  see  his  consideration  for 


15 

his  yoke-fellows  in  the  service  of  the  state.  McKinley 
believed  in  Congress.  These  men  were  representative. 
They  were  the  voice  and  conscience  and  judgment  of 
the  American  people.  They  were  not  chosen  idly  but 
because  of  their  ability  and  loyalty.  They  came  from 
the  freedom-loving  commonalty.  They  were  the  in- 
telligence and  heart  and  strength  of  patriotism.  The 
choice  of  the  people  he  did  not  despise. 

He  had  stood  for  thirteen  years  among  them  and 
knew  that  as  an  average  they  were  unusual  men.  And 
so  he  did  not  treat  his  Congresses  as  children  or  as 
knaves.  His  predecessor  had  vetoed  343  bills,  he  vetoed 
two.  He  had  prerogative  and  he  also  had  good  sense. 
He  might  have  exercised  prerogative  and  taken  Con- 
gress by  the  ears.  He  preferred  to  exercise  good  sense, 
and  took  it  by  the  button-hole.  And  this  man  of  geni- 
ality and  simplicity  and  considerateness  and  sympathy, 
won  his  way  where  others  would  have  failed.  Without 
the  surrender  of  a  single  flag  of  principle,  he  gained 
his  object  and  received  the  approbation  of  the  world. 

And  tonight  we  think  of  what  he  did. 

In  the  darkest  hour  of  national  depression  he 
wrought  the  miracle  of  material  prosperity.  When 
shall  we  forget  the  awful  days  from  1893  to  1897? 
The  crash  of  banks,  the  toppling  of  fortunes,  the  col- 
lapse of  trade  and  industry,  filled  the  heavens  with 
choking  dust  and  covered  the  earth  with  wreckage  and 
debris.  The  face  of  the  sun  was  hidden  by  the  rising 
cloud.  The  streets  were  emptied  of  their  traffic  and 
grass  was  growing  in  the  tracks  of  wheels.  Panic 
stretched  a  ghastly  hand  across  the  fields  of  promise 
and  discontent  sat  brooding  on  every  doorstep  in  the 
land.  Collaterals  were  of  no  avail  in  getting  loans. 
The  manufacturer  with  his  counting  room  full  of  ur- 


16 

gent  orders,  could  find  no  money  to  lubricate  the  axles 
of  his  enterprise.    Every  curbstone  was  the  resort  of 
idle  groups  trumpeting  financial  heresy.     Armies  of 
ragged  men  were  marching  from  San  Francisco  to 
Washington  while  self-respecting  indolence  sat  on  the 
fences  and  cheered  them  on.    The  blackest  year  of  all 
was  1896.    New  York  exchange  was  at  a  discount,  sel- 
ling at  eight-five.    The  national  treasury  was  running 
low,  revenue  had  fallen  behind  expenses  140  millions 
in  three  years.    The  balance  of  trade  was  all  against 
us,  and  ruin  was  knocking  at  our  outer  gates.    Whis- 
pers of  anarchy  were  heard  on  every  side  and  the  fears 
of  all  good  people  swung  between  the  thought  of  revo- 
lution on  the  one  hand  and  dictatorship  on  the  other. 
Then  came  the  election  of  1896.    Into  this  scene  of  un- 
precedented confusion  there  stepped  the  figure  of  a 
man — calm,  unmoved,  and  undismayed.     He  grasped 
at  once  the  situation,  and  like  the  architect  among  the 
fallen  pillars  of  a  stately  palace,  began  the  work  of 
restoration.     He  called  together  the  Congress  in  an 
extraordinary  session  and  bade  them  put  a  stop  to  the 
leak  in  the  National  Treasury.    He  bade  them  make 
provision  for  protection  of  every  honest  industry.    He 
demanded  that  the  dollar  of  America  should  be  of  such 
a  quality  that  its  ring  would  be  acknowledged  genuine 
in  every  market  of  the  world.    He  exhibited  to  all  the 
nations  a  leadership  of  business  sagacity.     And  sud- 
denly there  shot  across  the  heavens  a  phrase  we  had  not 
heard  for  years,  "Commercial  Confidence."    Mills  and 
factories  again  lit  up  their  fires,  the  trains  began  to 
rumble  across  the  continent,  the  ships  to  splash  across 
the  seas,  the  army  of  Coxey  went  marching  to  the  doors 
of  shops  and  mines  and  equipped  themselves  with  the 
bloodless  weaponry  of  productive  and   remunerative 


17 

toil.  Speedily  revenues  began  to  fill  the  treasury,  and 
the  balance  of  trade  swung  round  to  a  half  billion  of 
dollars  a  year  on  the  credit  side  of  ledger.  Capital  re- 
opened its  strong-box  and  labor  went  whistling  to  its 
work  with  well-filled  dinner  pail.  This  was  the  first 
achievement  of  McKinley.  He  touched  the  financial 
cemetery  and  the  graves  were  opened  and  national 
prosperity  arose  from  the  dead. 

The  second  achievement  which  he  wrought  was  the 
redemption  of  the  flag.  In  1896  the  world  was  looking 
on  the  Stars  and  Stripes  with  a  measure  of  derision  and 
contempt.  In  1898  there  was  not  a  potentate  upon  the 
globe  but  regarded  it  with  awe.  The  world  had  said 
the  militarism  of  the  United  States  had  declined  under 
the  burden  of  its  civilization.  But  now  there  came  a 
disenchantment.  The  business  man  from  Canton 
proved  to  be  a  soldier  from  the  camps  of  war  and  never 
since  Lincoln  was  there  a  severer  test  of  captaincy  than 
was  given  the  President  by  the  coming  of  the  Spanish 
conflict.  It  found  us  unprepared.  The  explosion  of 
February  made  everybody  eager  for  engagement.  But 
one  man  tarried.  It  was  the  President.  "We  must 
wait,"  he  said.  "Wait  until  we  discover  whether  we 
have  a  right  to  go  to  war.  Wait  until  men  shall  per- 
ceive the  justice  of  our  movements.  Wait  until  we  are 
able,  moreover,  to  equip  the  volunteers  we  marshal  to 
the  front."  And  not  until  every  step  of  diplomacy 
and  equity  had  been  taken,  not  until  all  was  ready,  was 
the  signal  given.  Then  suddenly  appeared  in  the  door- 
way of  the  White  House  the  Major!  A  sword  flashed- 
in  the  air,  and  all  America  stood  up  with  the  tri-color 
of  our  liberty  streaming  in  the  wind.  And  the  world 
saw  a  pillar  of  cloud  mingled  with  fire,  rising  from  the 
decks  of  battleships  at  Manila  and  Santiago  and  the 


18 

fields  of  El  Caney  and  San  Juan.  And  when  the  smoke 
had  cleared  away  there  was  not  a  scoffer  left  upon  the 
globe,  for,  on  the  western  horizon,  placing  with  new 
resplendency  our  banner  among  the  auroras  and  the 
pleiades,  GOD'S  eternal  stars  and  stripes,  stood  Mc- 
Kinley.  The  potential  militarism  of  the  United  States 
was  demonstrated.  The  ensign  of  the  republic  found  a 
home  in  both  the  hemispheres,  a  flag  on  which  the  sun 
no  longer  sets. 

The  third  achievement  which  McKinley  wrought 
was  solidarity.  He  not  only  made  friendship  with  our 
little  sister  Mexico,  not  only  clasped  the  hand  of  our 
big  brother  in  the  new  confederation  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  world,  but  he  also  made  us  strong  within  our 
borders.  He  closed  the  chasm  between  the  North  and 
the  South.  We  see  him  in  1898,  standing  on  Dexter 
street  in  Montgomery,  phrasing  the  messages  of  recon- 
ciliation. He  stood  where  Jefferson  Davis  had  stood 
in  the  sixties  to  salute  and  swear  allegiance  to  the  Con- 
federate flag.  And  where  again  in  1886,  Davis  with 
his  companions  of  the  lost  cause,  reaffirmed  their  old- 
time  principles.  Right  there  stood  McKinley  in  1898. 
It  was  a  trying  moment.  The  ex-soldier  of  the  Union, 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  elected  by  Republi- 
cans, was  now  to  speak  to  the  bitterest  contingent  relics 
of  the  old  regime.  I  hear  him  and  he  seems  to  be  a 
prophet  inspired  of  Heaven.  With  unflinching  man- 
hood he  speaks  of  the  old  and  new.  But  with  such 
evident  sincerity  he  paints  the  glorious  reconciliation 
by  the  mingling  of  the  Northern  and  the  Southern 
blood  in  the  war  with  Spain,  so  glowingly  did  he  re- 
call the  equal  valor  of  the  sons  of  Puritans  and  Cava- 
liers, that  right  there  where  secession  had  its  birth,  the 
new  era  of  a  stronger  nationalism  than  we  had  ever 
known  was  ushered  in. 


19 

On  this  natal  day  we  cannot  forget  that  other  day 
which  tells  of  saddest  tragedy.  The  soil  yet  trembles 
under  the  tread  of  the  multitude  that  moved  with 
bowed  head  in  the  funeral  cortege  of  our  beloved  Chief. 
Our  hearts  still  join  the  sad  rhythm  of  that  "Nearer, 
my  God,  to  Thee,"  which  had  been  the  song  of  his  life, 
and  was  now  become  the  requiem  of  a  people,  as  he 
passed  out  of  view  into  the  unbroken  stillness,  the  un- 
rifted  shadows  of  the  mystic  vale.  True,  the  poig- 
nancy of  our  grief  is  gone.  We  do  not  dare  keep  fresh 
the  bleeding  wound  left  by  fell  assassin's  stroke.  This 
mighty  Republic  carries  too  much  of  present  day  re- 
sponsibility to  permit  its  tarrying  in  fruitless  weep- 
ing, even  for  its  sacred,  cherished  dead.  We  have  asked 
the  sky,  full  of  shining  stars,  to  arch  in  sweet  protec- 
tive pavilion  above  our  martyred  President.  We  have 
taught  the  grasses  and  the  flowers  of  summer  to  weave 
themselves  in  tapestries  and  rugs  and  coverlets  of  love- 
liness beyond  compare,  and  even  the  driving  snows  of 
winter  to  wind  themselves  in  shrouds  of  spotless  white- 
ness round  about  him  where  he  lies  pillowed  on  the 
breast  of  Motherland.  But  while  we  tenderly  venerate 
his  ashes,  we  do  more  with  his  glorious  memory.  We 
call  for  the  spirit  of  McKinley,  the  wise,  the  humane, 
the  courageous,  the  modest,  the  patriotic  spirit  of  Mc- 
Kinley to  resurrect  itself  among  us  in  the  leaders,  the 
policies,  the  achievements  which  are  today  and  are  to 
be  tomorrow.  We  submitted  to  the  fearful  translation 
of  that  noble  form,  master  of  assemblies,  pride  of 
public  eye,  idol  of  domestic  circle,  but  we  cannot  bear 
the  thought  of  a  bereavement  so  complete  as  the  de- 
parture of  his  moral  splendor  from  our  commonwealth. 
And  this  is  the  greatest  eulogy  that  can  be  paid  to  any 
mortal  man :  that  his  thought  and  integrity  and  motive 


20 

cannot  be  spared  from  the  plenty  of  the  common  good. 
And  so  tonight,  I  pledge  to  you,  McKINLEY — the  glory 
of  his  party,  and  the  pride  of  all  mankind,  prophet  and 
priest,  apostle  and  evangelist,  sage  and  seer,  redeemer 
and  reformer,  soldier  and  martyr  of  the  commonwealth. 


MEMORIES  OF  McKINLEY 

GOVERNOR  ANDREW  L.  HARRIS. 

This  address  was  delivered  at  a  banquet  held  at  The 
Hollenden,  January  29th,  1907. 

United  States  Senator  William  Alden  Smith,  of 
Michigan,  Freeman  T.  Eagleson,  Speaker  Pro  Tem 
Ohio  House  of  Representatives,  and  Judge  Frederick 
A.  Henry  were  among  the  speakers. 

Ex-Governor  Myron  T.  Herrick,  as  Toastmaster,  in- 
troduced the  speaker. 


"To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind 
is  not  to  die,"  —  CAMPBELL. 

In  referring  to  "Memories  of  McKinley,"  I  am 
reminded  that  Governor  Herrick,  the  distinguished 
Toastmaster  of  the  evening,  was  no  doubt  as  close  to 
the  martyred  President  as  any  man  who  still  survives 
him.  Governor  Herrick  was  not  only  a  member  of 
his  Staff  and  a  delegate  at  State  and  National  Con- 
ventions at  which  McKinley  was  nominated,  but  he  was 
also  his  adviser  and  helper  in  private  business  and 
personal  matters,  as  well  as  in  party  and  public  affairs. 
Herrick's  home  was  McKinley's  home  in  Cleveland,  and 
McKinley's  home  was  Herrick's  home  in  Canton.  Later, 
Herrick  was  also  at  home  with  McKinley  in  Columbus 
and  Washington. 

Ten  years  ago  tonight,  McKinley  was  celebrating 
his  birthday  at  his  old  home.  It  was  his  last  birthday 
in  Canton.  He  had  been  a  private  citizen  the  previous 
year  and  was  at  that  time  the  President-elect  of  the 
United  States. 

During  the  five  weeks  intervening  between  that 
birthday  and  his  inauguration,  he  was  constantly  in 

21 


22 

conferences  with  those  seeking  to  become  Cabinet  Min- 
isters, Ambassadors  or  otherwise  listed  in  the  Blue 
Book.  There  was  then  to  be  a  change  from  a  Demo- 
cratic to  a  Republican  National  Administration.  That 
was  perhaps  the  most  strenuous  birthday  of  his  life. 
The  most  difficult  questions  of  party  and  public  policy 
were,  even  then,  pressing  hard  upon  him.  He  had  often 
gone  from  Canton  to  Washington  during  the  previous 
20  years,  but  he  had  never  made  that  trip  under  such 
circumstances  as  confronted  him  on  that  birthday. 

What  a  career  was  his  in  public  life  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century?  From  Congressman  to  Governor,  and 
from  Governor  to  President,  he  passed  up  with  such 
brief  intervals  that  he  was  constantly  before  the  people, 
from  the  Hayes  campaign  of  1876  until  his  death  in 
1901. 

As  you  will  tonight  have  an  able  address  on  this 
good  and  great  man  and  brave  soldier  from  one  of  our 
foremost  scholars  and  orators,  I  will  speak  only  of 
personal  recollections  of  him  as  a  Christian,  husband 
and  companion.  Having  served  as  Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor,  when  McKinley  was  for  four  years  Governor,  it 
was  my  fortune  to  have  toured  the  state  with  him  in 
different  campaigns,  and  to  have  been  personally  as- 
sociated with  him  after  his  first  gubernatorial  cam- 
paign. 

I  had  known  of  William  McKinley  for  many  years, 
but  met  him  for  the  first  time  at  the  Republican  State 
Convention,  in  Columbus,  in  1891,  when  he  was  nomin- 
ated for  Governor,  and  I  was  made  his  running-mate. 
He  invited  me  to  his  room,  in  the  evening  after  we  were 
nominated,  for  a  consultation,  and  to  get  better  ac- 
quainted. He  spoke  particularly  of  the  coming  cam- 
paign and  of  its  management.  He  expressed  the  hope 


23 

that  it  would  be  a  contest  of  principles  and  not  of 
money,  a  struggle  of  reason  and  not  of  abuse,  and  that 
so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  it  should  be  manly  and  fair, 
that  he  never  would  consent  to  compromise  himself  in 
the  least  to  get  votes;  and  he  did  not.  No  campaign 
was  ever  waged,  no  battle  was  ever  fought  with  more 
honor,  and  no  political  victory  was  a  greater  moral 
triumph. 

The  great  contest  for  United  States  Senator  be- 
tween Senator  Sherman  and  Governor  Foraker  was 
waging  at  the  time  of  McKinley's  first  election  as  Gov- 
ernor. Both  were  his  friends.  He  wished  to  keep  out 
of  that  struggle.  His  sympathy  was  with  Sherman— 
not  for  personal  reasons  alone.  Foraker  had  placed 
him  in  nomination  before  the  Convention  in  that  same 
year,  in  one  of  his  most  brilliant  and  eloquent  speeches. 
Foraker  had  a  good  subject  and  he  carried  the  con- 
vention by  storm.  He  left  a  sick  bed  to  do  this  for  his 
friend.  McKinley  was  grateful  to  him,  indeed,  and 
could  not  forget  him.  The  struggle  went  on.  Sherman 
was  in  danger  of  defeat.  McKinley  felt  that  the  finan- 
cial condition  of  the  country  demanded  Sherman's 
retention  in  the  Senate.  Duty  was  stronger  than 
friendship.  Sherman  was  elected.  Many  members  of 
the  Legislature  were  so  sorely  disappointed  that  they 
criticised  the  Governor.  He  took  them  into  his  con- 
fidence and  made  them  his  friends,  and  soon  had  their 
undivided  support.  They  may  have  remained  as 
Foraker  men  or  as  Sherman  men,  but  they  were  all 
McKinley  men. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  travel  with  him  during 
a  part  of  the  campaign  of  1891,  and  during  the  entire 
campaign  of  1893.  For  many  weeks  I  was  his  com- 
panion, traveling  in  the  same  car,  occupying  the  same 


24 

platform,  dining  at  the  same  table,  and  frequently 
sleeping  in  the  same  room.  I  learned  to  know  him  and 
to  love  him.  Whether  conversing  with  a  friend  or 
addressing  a  great  audience,  he  showed  his  magnetic 
influence  over  his  fellow  man.  While  his  eloquence  was 
not  brilliant,  it  was  convincing,  and  his  hearers  always 
gave  him  the  credit  of  being  honest  and  sincere. 

The  people  of  the  State  loved  him  more  in  1893 
than  in  1891,  because  they  knew  him  better,  and  to 
know  him  was  to  admire  him.  He  had  so  completely 
won  the  admiration  of  the  people  during  his  first  term 
as  Governor,  that  no  other  speaker  was  in  great  de- 
mand during  his  second  campaign.  His  meetings  were 
largely  attended  everywhere.  His  hearers  listened 
with  great  attention  and  drank  in  every  word  that  fell 
from  his  lips.  The  most  casual  observer  could  see 
that  he  was  the  favorite  son  of  the  State. 

I  pitied  the  man  who  was  called  upon  to  speak 
either  before  or  after  McKinley  that  year.  If  he  spoke 
before  him,  the  audience  seemed  anxious  for  something 
or  somebody  else.  If  he  spoke  after  him,  there  did  not 
seem  to  be  anything  more  wanted.  My  experience 
was  the  experience  of  other  speakers  more  gifted  in 
speech  than  myself.  The  late  lamented  General  Alger 
was  with  us,  by  invitation,  one  week.  His  experience 
was  like  mine.  We  frequently  talked  about  the  wonder- 
ful hold  McKinley  had  on  the  people,  and  neither  of  us 
had  any  choice  as  to  which  one  would  precede  or  follow 
McKinley,  as  the  conditions  were  about  the  same. 

In  campaigning  it  was  not  always  possible  for  us 
to  get  separate  rooms.  McKinley  preferred  a  room 
with  two  beds,  so  that  we  could  talk  over  matters 
before  retiring,  and  while  dressing  in  the  morning.  He 
utilized  all  of  his  time.  He  shaved  himself  every  morn- 


25 

ing,  using  one  hand  for  one  side  of  his  face  and  the 
other  hand  with  which  to  shave  the  other  side,  mean- 
time walking  about  the  room  and  talking  as  if  he  was 
not  engaged  in  what,  to  most  people,  is  a  very  delicate 
job.  He  frequently  glanced  over  the  newspapers  while 
shaving  himself  and  used  no  mirror.  He  never  laid 
awake  thinking  about  business,  politics  or  anything. 
He  was  an  excellent  sleeper,  and  fell  asleep  at  once  on 
retiring.  He  could  always  utilize  time  on  the  trains 
in  rest  and  could  go  to  sleep  at  will.  In  a  very 
unostentatious  manner,  he  always  had  his  private  de- 
votions, and  knelt  at  his  bedside  the  last  thing  at  night 
and  the  first  thing  in  the  morning. 

Whenever  McKinley  was  away  he  always  tele- 
graphed his  wife — twice  a  day — morning  and  evening. 
When  I  was  out  in  the  campaigns  with  him  he  was 
looking  for  telegrams  every  day  from  her. 

It  is  known  to  all  who  were  about  the  Capitol 
when  McKinley  was  Governor,  that  business  in  his 
private  office  stopped  for  a  moment  at  3:00  p.  m.,  no 
matter  who  was  with  him  nor  what  was  pending.  At 
that  hour  he  invariably  went  to  the  window  to  wave 
his  handkerchief.  Mrs.  McKinley  would  then  be  up 
from  her  repose  and  at  her  window  in  the  Neil  House, 
just  across  the  street,  waving  her  handkerchief  at  him. 
When  they  were  living  at  the  Neil  House,  he  never 
left  that  hotel  for  his  office  without  stopping  at  the 
entrance  to  the  Capitol  grounds  and  doffing  his  hat  to 
Mrs.  McKinley,  who  would  be  at  her  window,  and 
she  remained  there  until  he  passed  into  the  Capitol 
building.  On  that  spot  at  the  entrance  to  the  Ohio 
Capitol  grounds,  where  he  was  wont  to  stop  and  look 
back  at  Mrs.  McKinley's  window,  now  stands  the 


26 

McKinley  monument  that  was  dedicated  last  September 
in  the  presence  of  the  largest  crowd  ever  assembled  in 
Columbus. 

When  McKinley  was  inaugurated  as  Governor  in 
1894,  his  wife  was  unable  to  be  out  of  doors  and  the 
ceremonies  were  held  from  the  west  terrace  of  the  State 
House,  at  his  request,  so  that  Mrs.  McKinley  could 
witness  the  exercises  from  her  window  in  the  Neil 
House. 

McKinley  was  not  only  kind,  but  also  very  appre- 
ciative. He  had  the  courtesy  of  the  old  school,  and 
never  neglected  an  opportunity  to  express  his  thanks 
for  the  smallest  favors,  or  for  any  work  that  was  well 
done.  He  was  even  tempered — almost  perfection  in 
that  respect.  If  he  was  annoyed  by  applicants  or  by 
complaints,  it  made  no  difference  in  the  even  tenor  of 
his  way.  He  was  always  agreeable. 

While  McKinley  was  always  dignified,  yet  he  had 
a  delightful  sense  of  humor  and  with  his  intimates 
was  very  fond  of  a  joke,  but  his  humor  was  always 
scruplously  clean  and  his  anecdotes  did  not  need  ex- 
purgation for  parlor  use. 

McKinley  took  the  very  best  care  of  himself.  An 
almost  invariable  habit  was  to  get  out  a  portion  of 
each  day  for  a  good  walk.  He  was  a  believer  in  fresh 
air  and  moderate  exercise.  In  this  connection  it  may 
be  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that  he  was  an  excel- 
lent horseman,  retaining  all  his  proficiency  attained  in 
the  war.  On  several  occasions  he  had  the  opportunity 
to  show  his  Staff  how  to  ride  a  horse,  especially  on  one 
trip  at  Canton,  when  he  started  out  with  the  full 
military  staff  in  uniform,  mounted,  and  returned,  after 
a  dash  of  five  miles,  with  one  lone  attendant — all  the 
others  dropping  by  the  wayside  or  being  distanced.  He 


27 

had  an  excellent  constitution  to  start  with  and  in  his 
youth  must  have  been  a  powerful  man  physically. 

The  way  that  McKinley  had  reduced  the  endurance 
of  public  life  to  a  science  was  illustrated  in  his  hand- 
shaking. He  never  allowed  anyone  to  get  the  "drop" 
on  him.  He  always  got  hold  of  the  other  fellow's  hand 
first,  and  with  such  a  high  reach  as  to  prevent  gripping 
or  squeezing.  I  probably  noticed  this  custom  the  more 
for  the  reason  that  I  have  a  lame  right  arm  and  always 
suffer  for  days  afterward  from  the  effect  of  receptions. 
I  regret  that  I  was  never  able  to  catch  on  to  the 
McKinley  grip. 

I  have  humbly  recalled  some -little  things  about 
McKinley.  You  will  hear  of  the  big  ones  later  on  this 
evening.  But  even  these  little  traits  of  character  show 
him  to  have  been  a  faithful  Christian,  a  devoted  hus- 
band, a  popular  campaigner,  a  charming  companion, 
a  man  of  the  people  and  for  the  people  and  their 
sincere  public  servant.  He  bore  the  olive  branch  to 
factions  in  the  North,  as  well  as  to  his  brethren  in  the 
South.  He  believed  in  what  he  himself  stood  for,  and 
he  never  advocated  any  course  for  his  own  advancement 
to  the  detriment  of  his  country  or  his  state  or  his 
party. 

I  will  close  these  random  recollections  with  a  pen 
picture  of  the  man  by  one  who  was  intimately  associ- 
ated with  him,  both  in  his  private  and  public  life : 

"No  ruler  of  earth  was  ever  more  beloved  than  he. 
No  head  of  government  ever  knew  his  people  so  well. 
No  people  ever  confided  in  their  chief  executive  so 
much.  He  believed  that  the  voice  of  the  people  is  the 
voice  of  God,  and  his  ear  was  ever  ready  to  receive  the 
word.  He  knew  the  fallibility  of  kings,  and  believed 
that  the  people  can  do  no  wrong.  He  never  sought  to 


'28 

be  a  leader,  but  was  content  to  follow  the  pillar  of 
cloud  by  day  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night.  Yet  he 
had  all  the  qualifications  of  a  great  general.  He  could 
plan  a  campaign  with  consummate  skill  and  execute  it 
with  rare  power.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  use  the  abil- 
ities of  others  because,  like  Lincoln,  he  feared  no  man. 
He  was  great  enough  to  be  beyond  the  suggestion  of 
jealousy  and  good  enough  to  be  beyond  the  possibility 
of  hating. 

"William  McKinley  was  in  every  way  the  ideal 
American.  He  was  a  composite  of  the  highest  types  of 
manhood.  He  was  the  model  gentleman.  He  lived  but 
one  life.  He  was  always  the  same.  Something  of  the 
tender  devotion  to  his  wife  seemed  to  tint  and  mellow 
his  public  life.  Those  who  knew  him  in  his  home  life 
in  Canton,  in  his  career  in  Congress  and  as  Governor 
of  Ohio  knew  every  characteristic  of  the  martyred 
President. 

"The  biographer  of  William  McKinley  will  not  be 
able  to  point  out  any  one  quality  that  made  him  what 
he  was.  He  had  a  perfect  combination  of  all.  He  had 
poise;  he  was  eminently  sane  and  always  calm.  He 
knew  neither  the  excess  of  joy  nor  the  depths  of  sor- 
row, because,  whatever  the  occasion,  he  believed,  'It 
is  God's  way;  His  will  be  done/  His  spiritual  side  was 
particularly  beautiful.  He  accepted  the  doctrines  of 
the  church  without  reservation,  and  his  faith  was  as 
nearly  sublime  as  man  may  have.  He  had  a  singularly 
sweet  and  powerful  voice  and  was  fond  of  joining  in 
congregational  singing,  and  oftentimes,  in  the  privacy 
of  his  own  office,  he  would  hum  the  inspired  strains  of 
some  good  old  hymn,  and  if,  perchance,  a  stranger 
heard,  he  stood  with  uncovered  head  until  the  melody 
died  away. 


29 

"He  died,  as  he  lived,  a  Christian  gentleman — 
with  the  love  of  all  who  knew  him,  with  the  respect  of 
all  mankind.  The  world  is  better  because  he  lived  in 
it,  and  generations  to  come  will  be  benefited  by  his 
noble  example.  As  long  as  men  read,  the  name  of 
William  McKinley  will  adorn  one  of  the  brightest 
pages  of  history,  and  his  splendid  career  will  be  the 
polar  star  of  worthy  emulation." 


Courtesy,  The  Courtney  Studio. 

THE  McKINLEY  HOME. 

CANTON,    OHIO. 


WILLIAM   McKINLEY,   THE   REPRESENTATIVE 
AMERICAN 

PROF.  MATTOON  M.  CURTIS. 

This  address  was  delivered  at  the  banquet  at  The 
Hollenden,  January  29th,  1907,  following  the  address 
of  Governor  Harris  on  Memories  of  McKinley. 

The  speaker  was  introduced  by  Ex-Governor  Myron 
T.  Herrick,  Toastmaster. 

*       *       * 

"//  there  is  a  lesson  in  my  life  or  death,  let 
it  be  taught  to  those  who  still  live  and  have 
the  destiny  of  their  country  in  their  keeping." 

—WILLIAM  MCKINLEY. 

1.  We  are  here  to  do  homage  to  one  whose  char- 
acter confers  dignity  upon  us  all.  When  we  consider 
his  rise  to  the  position  of  Chief  Executive  of  the  Na- 
tion; when  we  consider  his  pure  life  and  his  splendid 
services ;  when  we  consider  the  dying  hero  and  his  at- 
titude toward  his  countrymen,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  William  McKinley  was  one  of  our  great  represent- 
ative Americans,  and  that  his  star  shall  shine  in  the 
future,  as  it  does  today,  among  the  brightest  in  the 
galaxy  of  American  statesmen. 

In  those  last  tragic  hours  when  this  great  life  was 
ebbing  away  into  history,  when  this  mortal  was  slowly 
putting  on  immortality,  it  gave  utterance  to  these  sig- 
nificant words :  "If  there  is  a  lesson  in  my  life  or  death, 
let  it  be  taught  to  those  who  still  live  and  have  the 
destiny  of  their  country  in  their  keeping." 

My  theme  tonight  is  the  message  of  William  Mc- 
Kinley "to  those  who  still  live  and  have  the  destiny  of 
their  country  in  their  keeping."  We  shall  dwell  upon 
those  points  wherein  he  rises  above  the  details  of 

33 


34 

practical  politics  and  becomes  the  expression  of  the 
fundamental  principles  that  underlie  our  institutions. 
It  is  not  the  message  of  the  soldier,  nor  of  the  congress- 
man, nor  of  the  governor,  nor  of  the  president,  but  of 
the  man,  the  statesman,  the  representative  American ; 
the  message  of  the  great  commoner  who  represented 
the  people,  the  laws  of  the  people,  and  the  ideals  of 
the  people. 

2.  McKinley  was  the  true  exponent  of  popular 
government,  not  only  because  he  believed  that  the  seat 
of  political  sovereignty  is  and  ought  to  be  in  the  peo- 
ple, but  because  he  knew,  loved  and  honored  the  people 
as  fellow  citizens.  No  one  more  than  he  believed  in 
the  integrity  and  patriotism  of  the  people  or  in  the 
soundness  of  public  opinion.  No  one  more  than  he 
held  the  respect  and  confidence  of  all  sections  and  all 
parties.  This  mutual  sympathy  and  trustfulness  gave 
him  a  prestige  as  a  national  leader  such  as  few,  if 
any  of  our  great  men  have  ever  attained.  The  sudden 
revival  of  confidence  that  immediately  followed  his 
election  in  1896;  his  great  popular  victory  in  1900; 
the  overwhelming  grief  that  fell  upon  the  nation  when 
his  light  went  out,  these  are  the  tributes  that  have 
already  been  paid  by  the  American  people  to  the 
American  representative.  He  was  criticized  by  shal- 
low politicians  as  "keeping  his  ear  to  the  ground"  and 
giving  too  much  deference  to  public  opinion.  This 
intended  reproach  was  a  eulogy  of  the  man,  for  it 
declares  at  once  his  high  estimation  of  the  people  and 
his  adequate  comprehension  of  the  nature  of  our  gov- 
ernment. Even  though  there  were  no  monument  to 
McKinley  in  all  our  land,  even  though  the  date  of  his 
birth  and  the  site  of  his  grave  should  be  forgotten; 
even  though  great  organizations  should  fail  to  meet 


35 

to  do  him  honor — his  history  would  remain  insepar- 
ably woven  into  the  history  of  his  country,  and  the 
fragrance  of  his  memory  would  live  in  the  hearts  of 
his  people.  Such  a  life  as  this  is  an  everlasting  pro- 
test against  a  score  of  heresies  that  spring  up  in  little 
minds  regarding  the  nature  of  our  government  and  of 
our  people.  Are  our  people  to  be  trusted?  Are  our 
institutions  securely  grounded?  Is  ingratitude  the 
crime  of  republics?  To  these  questions  McKinley  in 
the  presidential  chair  and  in  the  hearts  of  his  country- 
men is  a  sufficient  answer. 

McKinley's  belief  in  democracy  was  supported  by 
a  profound  grasp  of  the  American  situation  and  by 
what  the  future  of  our  country  demands.  His  de- 
mocracy was  complete.  Voltaire  once  said  that  Eng- 
lish society  was  like  English  ale — the  bottom  dregs, 
the  top  froth,  the  middle  excellent.  American  society 
is  of  the  excellent  middle  class — froth  and  dregs  are 
negligible  factors.  To  preserve  this  status  is  the  giant 
problem  that  confronts  us.  It  can  not  be  put  in  too 
glaring  colors.  Spain  is  a  two  class  nation,  froth  and 
dregs.  Russia  is  a  two  class  nation,  froth  and  dregs. 
They  can  arise  only  through  the  formation  of  an  excel- 
lent middle.  No  nation  is  stronger  than  its  middle 
class.  McKinley  saw  this,  and  we  should  all  realize  it. 
He  did  all  in  his  power  to  preserve  and  augment  the 
great  body  of  industrious  and  frugal  citizenship.  Any- 
thing that  tends  to  decrease  the  number  and  power 
of  our  great  middle  class  is  a  direct  attack  not  only 
against  our  government  but  against  the  health  and 
prosperity  of  society.  When  we  see  the  idle  rich  in- 
creasing at  the  top  and  the  proletariat  increasing  at 
the  bottom  it  is  high  time  to  look  after  the  interests 
of  our  institutions.  There  wras  a  time  in  our  history 


36 

when  the  larger  part  of  our  country  had  a  two-class 
society — masters  and  slaves.  What  was  the  social 
result?  Not  only  the  belief  that  human  rights  and 
liberties  were  limited  to  white  men,  but  the  formation 
of  a  great  class  of  poor  whites  whose  position  became 
less  enviable  than  that  of  the  slave.  Not  only  was  the 
South  deteriorating  in  moral  and  economic  aspects  but 
she  was  demanding  that  this  two-class  society  should 
be  extended  to  all  new  territory  and  states  below  an 
imaginary  line  and  that  our  nation  should  thus  be 
split  in  twain  from  east  to  west.  Hence  the  inevitable 
conflict  came.  What  for?  Not  primarily  for  the  free- 
dom of  the  slave ;  not  for  the  amelioration  of  the  poor 
whites,  but  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union ;  for  the 
preservation  of  a  one-class  society  before  the  law. 
The  war  of  1861  carried  on  the  work  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  1787,  and  it  remains  for  us  to 
preserve  and  protect  the  labors  of  the  fathers. 

As  McKinley  grasped  this  great  social  truth  in 
democracy,  so  he  grasped  its  correspondingly  great 
political  truth,  that  political  issues  should  divide  the 
people  vertically,  not  horizontally,  that  rich  and  poor, 
high  and  low  should  be  found  in  both  political  parties. 
If  there  is  anything  un-American,  if  there  is  anything 
intrinsically  pernicious  in  a  democracy  it  is  the  effort 
to  make  horizontal  political  issues,  to  create  classes 
and  set  class  against  class.  This  also  calls  for  wise 
leadership — calls  for  men  of  the  McKinley  type  who 
will  preserve  America  as  a  one-class  nation,  excellent, 
industrious,  prosperous  from  bottom  to  top,  without 
froth  or  dregs. 

Once  more,  he  is  the  representative  of  wise  de- 
mocracy in  keeping  sectional  politics  out  of  national 
issues.  No  local  interest  ever  blinded  McKinley  to  the 


37 

interests  of  the  nation  as  a  whole.  To  him  there  was 
neither  north  nor  south,  nor  east  nor  west.  As  a 
statesman  he  stood  for  all  the  people,  all  the  time,  and 
everywhere.  No  man  did  more  to  smooth  all  sectional 
differences  and  this  he  did  without  prejudicing  a  single 
principle.  True  he  was  the  great  protectionist.  But 
the  principle  pf  protection  can  not  be  impeached  by 
referring  it  to  greed  or  selfishness  or  sectional  inter- 
ests. He  believed  in  protection  as  a  principle  not  of 
loot  but  of  justice,  not  for  a  part,  but  for  all  the  peo- 
ple— a  duty  which  every  man  owes  to  himself  and 
which  every  government  owes  to  its  people. 

3.  McKinley  was  the  representative  of  the  peo- 
ple's law.  I  do  not  mean  merely  the  current  law  made 
by  state  and  federal  legislation  but  the  actual  crystalli- 
zations of  public  opinion  that  disclose  public  rights 
and  duties  for  all  the  people. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  the  statesman 
and  the  politician.  The  politician  pins  his  faith  to  the 
working  of  the  game  or  the  machine.  The  statesman 
grounds  his  faith  in  the  working  of  principles  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  living  freemen.  The  vision  of  the 
politician  is  the  vision  of  the  mole;  the  vision  of  the 
statesman  is  the  vision  of  the  eagle.  McKinley's  view 
of  law,  lawmaking  and  law  administration  was  that 
of  the  statesman.  The  moral  and  legal  were  very 
profound  elements  in  his  character.  They  are  in- 
grained in  the  stock  from  which  he  sprung — they  are 
in  the  religion  and  law  of  his  fathers.  He  had  learned 
obedience  to  law  in  his  ancestry  and  his  life.  He  had 
learned  it  as  a  child  in  his  home  at  Niles  and  Poland. 
At  seventeen  years  of  age  he  heard  his  country's  call 
and  out  of  that  devotion  to  duty  which  characterized 
his  whole  life  he  obeyed  that  summons  and  went  forth 


38 

as  a  private  to  stand  by  the  old  flag  to  the  finish.  He 
had  learned  it  as  a  soldier  in  the  field;  he  exhibited  it 
as  a  representative  in  Congress.  He  showed  that  he 
had  learned  reverence  and  obedience  to  law  as  the 
governor  of  this  state  and  as  the  chief  executive  of 
the  nation  and  in  that  last  sad  hour  he  showed  that 
he  could  face  the  last  orders  with  the  same  equanimity 
as  he  faced  the  enemy  at  Antietam  and  in  the  valley 
of  the  Shenandoah.  "It  is  God's  way.  His  will  not 
ours  be  done."  The  spirit  of  law  had  so  fully  entered 
his  soul;  the  spirit  of  justice  so  fully  possessed  him 
that  the  peerless  Secretary  of  State,  John  Hay,  truth- 
fully said  of  him  that  he  "Never  had  occasion  to  re- 
view a  judgment  or  reverse  a  decision."  Whenever 
justice  uttered  her  voice  he  listened  and  recognized 
law.  Whether  it  thundered  from  Sinai  to  command  us 
by  fear  or  distilled  like  the  dew  from  the  Mount  of 
Olives  to  command  us  by  love ;  whether  it  blazed  from 
the  Declaration  which  patriotism  flung  into  the  face 
of  tyranny  or  marches  in  the  Constitution  with  the 
solemn  logic  of  constructing  a  new  government,  wher- 
ever it  appeared  there  stood  McKinley  to  welcome  it 
and  pledge  his  unqualified  support. 

But  all  law  is  not  the  law  of  the  people,  it  ought 
to  be  but  it  is  not  always  so.  Not  all  legislation  is 
solely  in  the  interests  of  all — nor  in  the  interests  of 
the  majority.  Before  the  supreme  court  of  public 
conscience  some  of  our  laws  are  lawless — unjust,  in- 
iquitous. So  far  as  this  is  true  we  are  teaching  our 
people  the  first  principles  of  'resistance  to  arbitrary 
power;  so  far  as  such  laws  are  possible  we  are  giving 
lawmaking  into  the  hands  of  anarchy.  If  law  is  to 
be  respected  it  must  be  respectable.  If  law  is  to  be  a 
great  and  beneficial  educator  of  our  people  it  must  be 


89 

light  to  all  good  citizens  and  lightening  to  every  soul 
that  doeth  evil.  Now  and  again  we  read,  or  hear  it 
stated,  that  there  is  no  common  law  in  America.  It  is 
only  in  a  very  superficial  sense  that  such  a  view  can 
be  held.  It  is  surprising  that  a  democracy  a  sovereign 
people  should  have  no  common  law.  The  fact  is  that 
in  America  there  is  no  law  but  common  law.  Every 
declaration,  every  constitution,  every  legislative  act, 
every  decision  of  the  courts  is  only  a  more  or  less  ade- 
quate expression  of  the  common  law.  As  McKinley 
believed  in  the  people,  so  he  believed  in  the  people's 
law,  in  the  common  law,  in  natural  law  as  over  against 
all  conventionalistic  and  positivistic  views  of  law.  He 
believed  the  common  law  was  just,  because  it  expressed 
the  conscience  of  the  people;  that  it  was  stable,  be- 
cause it  represented  the  growth  of  centuries  of  human 
experience;  that  it  was  progressive,  because  it  is  cap- 
able of  being  modified  to  meet  all  human  exigencies. 
This  has  been  the  belief  of  all  our  great  statesmen 
from  Washington  to  Roosevelt.  For  this  kind  of  law 
McKinley  stood  and  every  true  American  must  both 
stand  and  work.  As  we  are  always  face  to  face  with 
the  question  whether  we  really  have  a  democracy  so 
we  are  always  face  to  face  with  the  question  whether 
we  have  a  system  of  laws  that  is  at  the  same  time  a 
system  of  equity.  A  free  people  can  maintain  its  free- 
dom only  under  law  and  it  is  an  eternal  vigilance  of 
genius  and  patriotism  that  can  steer  the  course  be- 
tween anarchy  and  despotism.  But  here,  as  elsewhere, 
it  is  the  letter  that  killeth  but  the  spirit  that  giveth 
life.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  fathers  and  our  own  spirits 
that  must  triumph  over  our  own  selfishness  and  law- 
lessness. When  we  think  of  the  spirit  which  made 
colonial  America,  we  take  courage;  when  we  think  of 


40 

the  spirit  that  fought  the  revolution  and  framed  the 
constitution,  we  take  courage;  when  we  think  of  the 
beginning  of  the  Republican  party  we  take  courage. 
When  I  think  of  the  Chicago  convention  of  1860  that 
dared  in  its  second  resolution  to  re-affirm  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Declaration  of  Independence;  when  I 
think  of  the  spirit  of  the  old  party  in  those  stormy 
days,  of  its  ideals  and  how  men  lived  and  died  for 
them ;  when  I  think  of  Abraham  Lincoln  rising  like  a 
great  Colossus  from  the  ranks  of  the  people  and  for 
four  long  years  never  flinching  in  the  face  of  duty 
under  his  Herculean  tasks;  when  I  think  of  Garfield 
and  McKinley,  giants  of  the  people  and  incarnations 
of  the  American  spirit  of  justice  for  all,  I  feel  how 
vast,  how  magnificent,  how  potent  is  the  moral  capital, 
not  only,  of  the  Republican  party,  but  of  the  American 
people.  It  is  high  time  that  we  Republicans  in  Ohio 
and  especially  in  Cuyahoga  County  begin  going  to 
school  to  the  great  leaders  and  principles  of  the  old 
Republican  party.  We  have  the  vision  of  the  mole. 
Let  us  have  the  vision  of  the  eagle.  Let  us  be  baptized 
once  again  into  this  spirit;  let  us  dare  to  re-affirm 
once  again  the  fundamental  lawr  of  our  land;  let  us 
catch  the  spirit  and  march  to  the  music  of  such  great 
statesmen  as  Washington,  Lincoln  and  McKinley ;  then 
shall  we  insure  a  government  whose  roots  grip  into 
eternal  justice  and  whose  blossoms  and  fruits  are  in 
the  lives  and  labors  of  a  free  and  powerful  people. 

4.  McKinley  represented  not  only  the  people  and 
the  people's  law  but  the  ideals  of  the  people.  It  was 
this  that  raised  him  high  above  the  politician  into  the 
realm  of  enduring  statesmanship.  The  people,  its  law 
and  its  religion  stand  or  fall  together.  Its  law  is  its 
sense  of  justice;  religion  is  its  sense  of  freedom.  Jus- 


41 

tice  and  freedom  are  the  two  giant  pillars  upon  which 
the  great  arch  of  democracy  rests.  These  three  as- 
pects of  our  national  life  have  been  traditionally  in- 
separable in  the  lives  of  our  great  statesmen.  They 
are  inseparable  in  the  life  of  William  McKinley.  It  is 
no  accident  that  the  greatest  statesmen  of  the  world 
have  been  idealists  harboring  a  profound  belief  in  the 
destinies  of  their  people  under  the  guidance  of  Provi- 
dence; it  is  no  accident  that  from  the  days  of  early 
Egypt  until  our  day  the  great  heroes  of  humanity  have 
recognized  a  law  higher  than  human  prescriptions  and 
a  power  superior  to  armies  and  navies;  it  was  no 
accident  that  the  immortal  Mayflower  compact  began 
with  the  words,  "In  the  name  of  God,  Amen !"  In  the 
name  of  God,  government  began  in  America,  in  New 
England  and  in  Virginia,  and  in  the  name  of  God  it 
has  been  and  must  be  preserved.  America  has  always 
been  imbued  with  idealism.  It  has  unified  our  people 
and  it  constitutes  our  most  pronounced  national  trait. 
We  owe  John  Calvin  much,  for  he  is  our  spiritual 
father,  in  religion  and  government.  The  Puritans  of 
New  England,  the  Cavalier  of  Virginia,  the  Dutch  of 
New  York,  the  French  Huguenots,  and  the  Scotch 
Covenanters  were  all  of  them  Calvinists  and  all  of 
these  are  our  fathers  who  carried  Calvinism  into  the 
Declaration  and  into  the  Constitution.  We,  the  chil- 
dren, have  modified  the  rigors  of  their  creed  and  soft- 
ened the  asperities  of  their  scheme  of  life,  but  we  dare 
not  call  into  question  their  fundamental  principles  and 
ideas.  When  the  storm  and  stress  come,  we  argue 
these  principles  right  up  to  the  throne  of  God,  and 
accept  the  logic  of  Calvinism — that,  "The  voice  of  the 
people  is  the  voice  of  God."  McKinley  was  according 
to  the  flesh  and  the  spirit  a  child  of  these  fathers  and 


42 

he  towers  before  us  in  giant  form  proclaiming  the 
same  great  principles  which  dwelt  so  powerfully  in 
Franklin,  Washington  and  Lincoln.  Does  some  one 
say  that  the  idealist  emphasizes  the  general  and  loses 
sight  of  particulars?  I  affirm  in  view  of  all  the  great 
statesmen  and  generals  and  financiers  and  scientists 
and  philosophers  whose  history  is  known  to  us  that  it 
is  only  the  idealist  and  the  generalizer  who  knows  how 
to  deal  with  particulars,  while  the  slaves  of  detail 
make  up  the  ranks  of  bungling  mediocrity. 

McKinley's  ideals  were  not  idle  fancies,  but  great 
potentialties  for  the  realization  of  which  he  fondly 
hoped  and  patiently  labored.  His  view  of  the  destiny 
of  the  nation  was  as  firm  and  grand  as  that  of  Wash- 
ington when  he  looked  out  upon  the  boundless  wilder- 
ness of  the  West.  He  believed  in  arbitration,  not  only 
in  international  matters,  but  in  all  individual  differ- 
ences and  in  all  differences  between  capital  and  labor. 
On  the  floor  of  the  49th  congress,  in  1886,  he  declared, 
"I  believe  in  arbitration  as  a  principle."  As  he  loved 
peace  so  he  hated  war.  When  the  explosion  in  Ha- 
vanna  harbor,  in  February,  1898,  sent  a  thrill  through 
the  nation  as  a  call  to  war;  when  men  were  eager  to 
clutch  the  weapons  of  destruction,  McKinley,  the  old 
soldier  who  never  paled  on  the  field  of  battle,  bade  the 
nation  pause:  "We  must  wait,"  he  said,  "until  we 
perceive  the  justice  of  our  movements,"  and  he  kept  us 
waiting  until  he  saw  that  the  war  was  inevitable,  and 
then  he  threw  his  whole  soul  into  its  speedy  conclusion. 
So  speedy  and  conclusive  was  the  victory,  so  humane 
were  the  readjustments,  that  we  scarcely  realize  today 
the  epoch-making  significance  of  the  McKinley  war 
and  the  superb  statesmanship  that  controlled  its  inter- 
national relations.  And  then  at  last  in  that  swan-song 


43 

address  at  Buffalo  we  hear  his  commercial  valedictory 
to  the  nation,  which  should  ring  in  our  ears  until  its 
meaning  is  realized.  "Reciprocity  treaties  are  in  har- 
mony with  the  spirit  of  the  times,  measures  of  retali- 
ation are  not."  It  is  a  matter  for  regret  that  we  have 
so  far  been  unable  to  secure  such  a  treaty  with  any 
important  European  nation.  Although  reciprocity 
treaties  are  difficult  to  secure  and  when  secured  are 
difficult  to  enforce,  they  represent  the  high  commercial 
ideal  toward  which  we  should  strive.  When  we  con- 
sider his  moral  and  political  idealism  we  may  say  that 
if  there  was  ever  a  man  amongst  us  who  followed  the 
"Prince  of  Peace,"  that  man  was  William  McKinley. 
Such  men  have  made  America  fortunate  above  all 
the  lands  of  mother  earth ;  fortunate  in  her  territory, 
that  is  able  to  make  her  the  granary  of  the  world ;  for- 
tunate in  her  mineral  resources,  so  opened  as  to  place 
her  industries  and  commerce  in  the  van  of  the  nations ; 
fortunate  in  her  population,  which  however  hetero- 
geneous in  race  are  moulded  by  the  American  spirit 
into  a  homogeneous  citizenship ;  fortunate  in  her  insti- 
tutions of  government,  of  education  and  of  religion, 
that  are  ever  stimulating  her  people  to  realize  the 
ideals  of  the  fathers.  As  long  as  America  can  produce 
such  men  as  have  guided  our  destines  to  the  present 
time,  as  long  as  such  men  command  our  reverence  and 
fire  our  devotion  to  country  and  warn  us  that  "corrup- 
tion wins  not  more  than  honesty,"  so  long  will  our 
body  politic  be  robust  with  health  and  strength,  and 
the  American  spirit  be  the  light  and  inspiration  of 
the  nations  of  the  earth. 


THE  PLACE  OF  McKINLEY  IN  HISTORY 

PAUL  F.  SUTPHEN,  D.  D. 

This  address  was  delivered  at  the  annual  McKinley 
Day  banquet,  held  in  Chamber  of  Commerce  Hall, 
January  29th,  1908. 

Other  speakers  at  the  banquet  table  were  Hon.  D.  E. 
McKinlay,  of  California,  and  Secretary  of  War  Wil- 
liam H.  Taft. 

Rev.  Caspar  Wistar  Hiatt  pronounced  the  Invoca- 
tion. 

Toastmaster,  Lieut.-Governor  Francis  W.  Treadway, 
introduced  the  speaker. 

*      *      * 

The  greatest  heritage  which  any  nation  ever  re- 
ceives from  the  past  is  the  heritage  of  history ;  it  may 
fall  heir  to  other  and  more  tangible  things,  to  the 
accumulated  wealth  of  preceding  generations,  to  the 
science  and  inventions  of  those  who  have  gone  before, 
yet  it  is  the  history  of  a  nation  which  creates  and  in- 
spires national  ideals,  which  develops  national  con- 
sciousness which  intensifies  patriotism.  Little  Hol- 
land and  little  Switzerland  are  tiny  states  in  the  pres- 
ence of  their  neighbors,  but  their  splendid  history, 
out  of  all  proportion  to  their  area,  wealth  or  popula- 
tion, entitles  them  to  a  high  rank  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  In  the  final  analysis,  nations  are  made 
up  not  of  things,  not  of  acres,  or  cities,  or  factors,  or 
millions,  but  of  men;  and  it  is  what  those  men  are, 
what  they  have  done  and  are  doing,  that  gives  a  na- 
tion's existence  any  significance  whatsoever. 

Here  in  America  we  are  justly  proud  of  our  na- 
tional domain,  of  our  great  commerce,  of  our  vast 
wealth,  of  the  industry  of  our  citizens,  but  we  feel 

45 


4(5 

that  it  is  not  for  any  nor  for  all  of  these  that  we  are 
willing  to  live  or  to  die ;  these  are  our  means  of  living, 
they  are  not  our  life.  Back  of  us  is  the  stored-up 
manhood  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  years, — a  manhood 
which  has  been  tested  over  and  over  again  in  the  hot 
furnace  of  national  trial  and  has  never  been  found 
wanting.  At  the  beginning  of  our  history,  that  man- 
hood found  its  most  fitting  exponent  in  the  heroic 
figure  of  the  immortal  Washington.  When  the  nation 
entered  upon  the  second  great  period  of  its  history, 
that  manhood  found  its  type  in  the  rugged  personality 
of  the  second  father  of  his  country — Abraham  Lincoln. 
When  the  third  epoch  dawned,  it  was  represented  by 
the  strong,  the  genial,  the  lovable  presence  of  him  in 
whose  memory  we  are  assembled  tonight,  the  third 
martyr  President  of  the  republic,  William  McKinley. 
I  do  not  mention  these  three  names  together  as 
implying  that  they  were  men  of  equal  greatness  nor 
that  Providence  assigned  to  them  tasks  of  equal  magni- 
tude ;  they  were  men  very  dissimilar  from  one  another. 
The  part  which  any  one  of  them  played  was  very  likely 
a  part  which  neither  of  the  others  could  have  played. 
But  they  were  alike  in  this,  that  each  of  them  was  a 
typical  American  of  his  own  generation — a  genuine 
product  of  American  institutions  and  devoted  to  those 
institutions  with  undying  loyalty;  and,  furthermore, 
it  can  be  said  of  these  three  men  as  it  cannot  be  said 
of  any  others  who  have  occupied  the  presidential  chair, 
that  they  are  respectively  identified  with  the  three 
great  epochs  which  have  thus  far  marked  the  history 
of  the  United  States,  so  that  the  epoch  and  the  name 
of  the  man  associated  with  it  will  ever  be  almost  in- 
terchangeable terms. 


47 

I  need  hardly  more  than  mention  in  this  presence 
what  those  epochs  are.  For  eight  long  years  of  toil- 
some war,  when  the  nation  was  struggling  to  be  born ; 
in  the  critical  days  which  followed  when  the  new  con- 
stitution was  superseding  the  loose  Articles  of  Con- 
federation, and  for  two  generations  afterwards,  when 
the  infant  republic  was  growing  up  into  childhood  and 
early  youth,  the  hand  which  guided  its  destinies  and 
the  name  which  was  invoked  as  the  last  standard  of 
authority  was  the  hand  and  the  name  of  Washington. 
Few  historians  have  dwelt  sufficiently  upon  his  almost 
miraculous  influence  in  holding  the  States  together 
during  that  stormy  generation  which  immediately  pre- 
ceded the  Civil  War.  Being  dead,  he  yet  spoke  with 
commanding  voice  to  his  countrymen ;  what  he  said 
about  the  importance  of  union  was  still  ringing  in 
their  ears ;  to  disobey  that  voice  seemed  like  sacrilege, 
so  completely  was  his  great  presence  identified  with 
the  first  epoch  of  our  national  life. 

The  second  epoch  dawned  with  the  "irrepressible 
conflict,"  when  it  was  left  for  battle  to  decide  whether 
we  were  a  nation  or  a  mere  confederacy,  bound  to- 
gether by  a  rope  of  sand.  Out  of  that  conflict  our 
national  consciousness  was  born.  Before  1861  we  did 
not  know  what  we  were;  some  said  one  thing,  some 
another;  there  was  no  sense  of  national  unity.  But 
who  has  doubted  what  we  are  since  1865?  There  has 
been  no  more  talk  of  confederacy  since  then,  no  more 
talk  of  disunion.  We  are  a  nation !  The  fact  took  hold 
upon  the  people  something  like  a  revelation ;  it  stirred 
their  souls  as  they  had  never  been  stirred  before. 
California  is  our  country,  and  Maine,  and  Louisiana, 
as  well  as  Ohio.  A  new  meaning  came  into  the  na- 
tional motto;  the  emphasis  now  rested  on  the  unum 


48 

and  not  on  the  pluribus.    You  know  how  this  sense  of 
national  unity,  this  national  consciousness,  as  I  have 
called  it,  kept  on  growing  during  the  generation  which 
followed  the  Civil  War.    How  it  thawed  out  sectional 
animosity,  melted  down  provincial  prejudice  and  fused 
the  people  into  one;  and  during  all  this  period  when 
we  were  awakening  to   our  national   self-hood,  the 
American  name  which  was  above  every  name,  was  that 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.    His  was  the  hand  which  guided 
the  nation  to  its  self-realization  during  those  dreadful 
years  of  conflict,  and,  like  Washington,  his  was  the 
name    invoked    as    the    last    standard    of    authority 
throughout  the  generation  which  followed  his  death. 
It  was  in  the  year  1898  that  our  country  entered 
upon  the  third  epoch  in  its  history.    The  circumstances 
which  introduced  it  were  in  themselves  of  compar- 
atively insignificant  importance  and  certainly  out  of 
all  proportion  to  their  far-reaching  results.    The  war 
with  Spain  was  not  any  great  affair;  our  adversary 
was  weak,  unprepared  for  the  conflict,  uniformly  de- 
feated, and  the  war  was  over  in  a  hundred  days.    But 
out  of  that  comparatively  insignificant  struggle  the 
United  States  emerged  as  a  great  World  Power.    Even 
up  to  that  time  the  nation  had  been  regarded  as  a  sort 
of  provincial   republic  by  most   of  the  countries   of 
Europe.    We  were  separated  from  the  Old  World  by 
two  great  oceans ;  we  were  not  a  factor  to  be  seriously 
reckoned  with  in  the  world's  politics;  we  were  hardly 
consulted  on  great  international  questions.     We,  who 
had  already  come  to  the  realization  of  our  national 
strength  and  unity,  were  not  a  little  amused  at  the 
estimate  put  upon  us  by  our  European  neighbors  at 
that  time.     Our  rashness  was  criticised  in  throwing 
down  the  gauge  of  war  to  such  formidable  fighters  as 


49 

the  Spaniards  had  always  shown  themselves  to  be.  It 
was  seriously  expected  that  our  navy  would  be  wiped 
off  the  sea  by  the  powerful  fleets  of  Spain.  The  com- 
ments and  prophecies  of  the  European  press  at  the 
opening  of  the  war  could  not  have  well  revealed  a  more 
dismal  ignorance  of  the  resources  or  self-consciousness 
of  the  American  nation  than  they  did.  But  what  a 
change  in  world-wide  opinion  the  war  almost  instantly 
effected !  It  was  not  simply  that  American  arms  were 
uniformly  successful  both  on  land  and  sea ;  it  was  the 
astonishing  resources  which  the  nation  could  instantly 
command,  the  millions  which  congress  could  vote  with- 
out a  moment's  hesitation,  the  hundreds  of  millions 
which  the  people  were  so  eager  to  pour  into  the  treas- 
ury that  they  had  to  be  restrained,  the  limitless  supply 
of  men  who  were  willing  to  take  the  field,  the  patriot- 
ism of  all  classes  of  the  people,  and,  by  no  means 
least,  the  fact  that  the  veterans  of  the  Civil  War  on 
both  sides  of  that  conflict,  and  their  sons,  forgetful  of 
the  past,  were  united  in  common  loyalty  to  the  old 
flag  and  marched  with  equal  enthusiasm,  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  to  fight  the  battles  of  their  common  country. 
From  that  hour,  the  American  republic  sprang  to  a 
foremost  place  among  the  world's  great  powers.  It 
could  no  longer  be  ignored  in  world  politics;  it  had  a 
word  to  say  presently  with  respect  to  China  and  it  was 
a  word  that  was  listened  to.  The  novel  sight  of  Ameri- 
can soldiers  marching  with  the  troops  of  the  other 
great  powers  to  the  rescue  of  the  legations  at  Pekin 
may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the  changed  position  which 
the  nation  had  come  to  occupy  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  The  era  of  provincialism  and  isolation  was 
over,  the  epoch  of  world-wide  relations  had  come. 


50 

I  mention  these  facts,  gentlemen,  only  for  one 
reason.  The  name  which  will  ever  be  identified  with 
this  third  great  epoch  in  our  history  is  the  name  of 
William  McKinley.  As  surely  as  the  name  of  Wash- 
ington is  identified  with  the  first  period  in  our  history 
and  the  name  of  Lincoln  is  identified  with  the  second, 
so  surely  will  the  name  of  McKinley  be  identified  with 
the  third.  There  are  some  who  will  say  that  it  was 
not  he  who  created  the  influences  which  made  the 
United  States  a  world  power.  Neither  did  Washington 
create  the  influences  which  inevitably  tended  toward 
American  independence,  nor  did  Lincoln  create  the 
influences  which  ended  in  the  consolidation  of  the  na- 
tion. All  these  things  were  ultimately  bound  to  come, 
but  when  the  crises  came  these  were  the  men  of  the 
hour,  and  so  magnificently  did  each  of  them  meet  the 
crisis  of  his  day  that  his  name  will  ever  be  associated 
with  the  splendid  result, — Washington  with  the  birth 
and  early  days  of  the  republic,  Lincoln  with  its  pres- 
ervation and  nationalization,  McKinley  with  its  ex- 
pansion into  a  great  world  power. 

President  McKinley  must  have  keenly  realized, 
when  he  faced  the  Spanish  war,  that  its  results  would 
be  far-reaching.  We  had  not  been  in  armed  conflict 
with  a  European  power  since  1812.  Spain  had  many 
friends  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea.  The  event  proved 
that  our  only  friend  was  Great  Britain.  Complica- 
tions might  easily  have  ensued  which  would  have  made 
the  conflict  formidable.  Skilful  diplomacy  was  as  nec- 
essary as  military  and  naval  leadership.  Furthermore, 
it  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that  the  success  of  the 
war  would  place  Cuba  under  our  protectorate  and  the 
other  Spanish  colony  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  in 
our  hands.  It  was  not  yet  foreseen  that  to  this  the 


51 

Philippines  would  be  added,  but  it  was  evident  that  we 
should  be  compelled  to  assume  the  as  yet  to  us  untried 
experiment  of  a  colonial  power.  This  was  foreign  to 
our  traditions  and  would  involve  problems,  constitu- 
tional and  otherwise,  which  we  had  never  before  been 
compelled  to  face.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  colonial 
dependencies,  especially,  the  Philippines,  had  hardly 
come  into  our  possession  before  the  storm  at  home 
broke  upon  the  President's  head.  We  are  not  here  con- 
cerned with  the  merits  of  the  controversy.  I  allude 
to  these  things  only  to  remind  you  of  the  difficulties 
which  William  McKinley  encountered,  both  at  home 
and  abroad,  in  meeting  the  inevitable  situation  which 
made  the  United  States  a  great  world  power.  He  was 
a  man  of  peace,  but  when  the  war  became  inevitable 
he  never  faltered;  he  was  willing  to  accept  all  the 
responsibilities  which  the  new  career  of  his  country 
laid  upon  his  shoulders.  He  was  not  frightened  by 
hostile  criticisms  abroad,  nor  by  strictures  on  his 
colonial  policies  at  home.  He  realized  that  the  country 
was  entering  upon  a  new  era  and  he  stood  calmly  with 
his  hand  upon  the  helm  of  the  ship  of  state,  guiding 
her  between  the  rocks  into  these  unknown  seas.  The 
greatness  of  the  man  will  be  realized  more  keenly  by 
those  who  shall  come  after  us  who  will  see  him  in  the 
perspective  of  history.  Not  the  least  significant  thing 
in  his  career  is  the  fact  that  his  last  public  utterance, 
on  the  day  when  he  was  struck  down  by  an  assassin, 
dealt  with  questions  of  reciprocity  which,  while  hav- 
ing to  do  mainly  with  trade  relations,  was  in  direct  line 
with  the  whole  trend  of  his  administration  to  make 
the  United  States  one  of  the  leading  powers  of  the 
world. 


52 

You  will  perhaps  be  disappointed,  gentlemen,  that 
I  have  not  dwelt  more  upon  the  man  himself,  upon  his 
sturdy  boyhood  in  a  plain  American  home,  upon  the 
young  soldier  going  away  at  seventeen  to  fight  his 
country's  battles  in  the  Civil  War,  upon  his  heroism 
in  the  field,  upon  his  study  and  early  practice  of  the 
law,  upon  his  fourteen  brilliant  years  in  congress 
where  his  clear  resonant  voice,  charged  with  the  elo- 
quence of  resistless  logic,  so  often  carried  all  before 
it;  upon  his  statesmanship  as  Governor  of  Ohio,  and 
most  of  all,  upon  his  personal  winsomeness;  upon  his 
devoted  affection  for  his  friends;  upon  his  chivalry 
and  tenderness,  like  a  knight  of  olden  times,  toward 
her  who  had  shared  his  joys  and  sorrows,  and  surely, 
but  not  least,  upon  his  unalterable  faith  in  God,  never 
more  deeply  manifested  than  in  his  last  hours,  when, 
dying  at  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  he  murmured,  "It  is 
God's  way,  His  will  be  done." 

But  with  all  of  these  facts  in  his  life,  brilliant  as 
many  of  them  are  and  unspeakably  tender  as  are 
others,  you  are  perfectly  familiar.  I  have  rather  de- 
sired in  this  brief  address  to  point  out  to  you  the  en- 
during place  which  William  McKinley  is  bound  to 
occupy  in  the  history  of  the  United  States ;  the  fact 
that  he,  so  to  speak,  ushered  in  the  third  epoch  of  our 
national  life,  and  that  this  fact,  if  no  other,  would 
give  him  a  place  of  enduring  fame. 

It  is  always  difficult  for  the  contemporaries  of 
any  character  to  estimate  the  real  elements  of  his 
greatness.  Personal  friendship  is  sure  to  over-esti- 
mate his  virtues  as  hostility  is  sure  to  under-estimate 
his  worth.  Washington  had  bitter  enemies  who  could 
not  see  the  greatness  which  his  friends  saw  in  him. 
Some  of  us  can  remember  the  time  when  there  were 


those  who  considered  it  sacrilege  to  mention  the  name 
of  Lincoln  in  the  same  breath  with  that  of  Washing- 
ton. McKinley  had  no  personal  enemies,  and  even 
those  who  differed  from  him  on  political  questions 
never  failed  to  recognize  the  sterling  qualities  of  the 
man.  Yet  it  is  too  soon  for  any  of  us  to  say  with  con- 
fidence just  how  great  a  man  posterity  will  declare 
him  to  have  been.  We  must  wait  until  years  shall 
afford  the  right  perspective,  until  all  controversies 
about  his  policies  have  died  away,  until  the  results  of 
his  life  work  shall  be  tested  as  only  future  events  can 
test  them.  But  whatever  the  verdict  of  posterity  may 
be  as  to  his  greatness,  his  identification  with  the  third 
epoch  in  our  national  life  makes  his  fame  secure.  He 
stands  like  his  two  great  predecessors  to  whom  I  have 
frequently  referred  this  evening,  at  the  parting  of  the 
ways.  Our  history  will  never  be  again  what  it  was 
before  he  became  President  of  the  republic.  Whether 
we  will  or  no,  we  must  take  our  part  henceforth  in  the 
congress  of  the  world.  Other  things  than  trade  and 
commerce  will  mark  our  intercourse  with  other  na- 
tions. The  days  of  our  quiet  life  of  isolation  are  over ; 
we  are  in  the  forefront  of  the  nations  of  the  world. 

I  am  glad,  gentlemen,  you  are  in  the  habit  of  re- 
membering the  day  of  William  McKinley's  birth.  He 
was  a  son  of  whom  Ohio  was  always  justly  proud;  he 
reflected  infinite  credit  upon  his  native  State  and  she 
can  well  afford  to  honor  him.  We  shall  not  soon  for- 
get his  dignified  yet  genial  presence,  his  stirring  words 
of  eloquence,  nor  the  utter  manliness  and  nobility  of 
his  soul. 

How  better  can  I  conclude  these  words  than  by 
applying  to  William  McKinley  the  sentiments  which 
he  uttered  respecting  Washington  in  his  address  to 


54 

the  officers  and  students  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania on  Washington's  birthday,  1898 — 

"We  love  to  recall  his  noble  unselfishness, 
his  heroic  purposes,  the  power  of  his  magnifi- 
cient  personality,  his  glorious  achievements 
for  mankind,  and  his  stalwart  and  unflinch- 
ing devotion  to  independence,  liberty  and  un- 
ion. *  *  *  We  have  every  incentive  to 
cherish  his  memory  and  teachings.  *  *  * 
The  priceless  opportunity  is  ours  to  demon- 
strate anew  the  enduring  triumph  of  Ameri- 
can civilization  and  to  help  in  the  progress 
and  prosperity  of  the  land  we  love." 


McKINLEY  THE  MAN 

COL.  JOHN  J.  McCoox. 

This  address  was  delivered  at  the  annual  banquet 
held  at  The  Hollenden,  January  29th,  1909. 

Other  speakers  were  William  S.  Bennett,  Congress- 
man from  New  York,  and  Robert  W.  Tayler,  U.  S. 
District  Judge.  The  Toastmaster,  Governor  Myron  T. 
Herrick,  in  introducing  the  speaker  referred  to  him  as 
a  member  of  the  family  of  "Fighting  McCooks."  (Col. 
McCook  was  the  youngest  and  only  surviving  member 
of  a  family  of  nine  sons  all  of  whom  served  in  the  Civil 
War.) 

For  the  following  brief  synoposis  of  this  speech 
the  publisher  is  indebted  to  the  files  of  the  Cleveland 
Leader: 

*      *      * 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  be  here  this  evening.  I 
congratulate  this  club  on  these  splendid  anniversary 
banquets.  We,  who  live  in  the  effete  East,  appreciate 
good  things  and  we  always  know  it  is  a  good  thing  if 
it  originates  in  Ohio.  I  am  delighted  that  you  have 
invited  me  here. 

I  am  not  prepared  to  deliver  a  formal  address. 
I  wish  only  to  speak  a  few  words  from  the  heart  about 
the  man  we  loved,  a  man  gentle  as  a  woman  but  with 
red  corpuscles  in  his  blood. 

McKinley  was  the  embodiment  of  service,  of  serv- 
ice to  God,  service  to  his  friends,  to  his  family  and  to 
humanity.  The  man  or  woman,  who  saw  Mr.  Mc- 
Kinley in  the  home,  could  have  only  one  sentiment 
and  that  of  admiration  for  this  man.  No  matter  how 
busy  he  was,  his  thoughts  quickly  turned  to  his  invalid 
wife.  In  his  home  he  set  an  example  every  American 
ought  to  follow.  He  was  a  man  who  was  earnestly 

55 


56 

religious.  He  spoke  little  of  his  thoughts  but  he 
walked  humbly  with  his  God.  He  tried  to  be  abso- 
lutely just  but  tempered  mercy  with  his  justice. 

If  there  are  good  men  and  true  in  this  State  of 
Ohio,  it  is  because  they  are  the  sons  of  godly  women, 
women  like  the  mother  of  McKinley. 

I  saw  McKinley  first  during  a  campaign  with  the 
Army  of  The  Potomac.  General  Grant  introduced  me 
to  him.  He  was  Captain  McKinley  then,  a  youth  of 
twenty  years,  "ruddy  and  of  good  complexion,"  like 
David.  We  were  both  from  Ohio  and  naturally  be- 
came acquainted  easily  and  quickly.  He  was  then 
the  keen-cut  specimen  of  the  volunteer  soldier. 

Mr.  McCook  told  how  in  one  battle  Capt.  McKinley 
went  through  a  heavy  fire  to  the  rear  to  get  coffee  and 
crackers  for  the  men  and  how  they  cheered  him  until 
the  Confederates  thought  that  the  Federals  were 
cheering  because  reinforcements  had  reached  them. 

He  related  the  story  of  a  young  soldier's  death — 
that  of  his  brother,  which  fact  few  of  his  audience 
realized.  This  youth,  a  student  at  Kenyon  college, 
volunteered  at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  and  was 
killed  at  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run.  As  he  died  in 
his  father's  arms  the  boy  repeated: 

"Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori" — it  is 
sweet  to  die  for  one's  country. 

Let  us  live  so  that  this  nation  will  be  better  for 
our  lives. 

Remember  the  name  of  McKinley  in  connection 
with  service,  with  service  for  God,  for  country,  for 
family  and  for  humanity. 


MYRON  T.  HERRICK, 

EX-GOVERNOR   OF    OHIO,    PRESENT    AMBASSADOR 

TO  FRANCE,  WHO  WAS  HOUND  TO  McKINLEY 

BY    SO   CLOSE  A  TIE   OF   FRIENDSHIP 

THAT   HE   IS   LINKED    WITH 

HIS    MEMORY. 


WILLIAM  McKINLEY 

JOHN  A.  SHAUCK, 
Judge  of  The  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio. 

This  address  was  delivered  at  the  annual  banquet  of 
The  Tippecanoe  Club  held  on  January  29th,  1910,  at 
The  Hollenden. 

Other  speakers  were  President  James  B.  Ruhl  of 
the  Club,  Congressman  James  T.  Burke  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Wade  Ellis,  Assistant  U.  S.  Attorney  Gen- 
eral. 

Toastmaster,  Governor  Myron  T.  Herrick,  intro- 
duced the  speaker. 

*r        *r        T 

We  may  congratulate  ourselves  on  the  large  and 
rapidly  increasing  number  of  our  Memorial  days. 
That  the  youngest  of  all  the  great  nations  has  the 
longest  roll  of  those  who  are  justly  deemed  worthy  to 
be  regarded  as  immortals  is  a  source  of  national  pride. 
But  it  should  not  start  surprise,  although  this  distinc- 
tion has  come  to  us  in  our  national  youth,  when  we 
have  scarcely  lost  touch  with  those  who  became  dis- 
tinguished for  transcendent  qualities  of  leadership  in 
the  achievement  of  our  independence  and  the  establish- 
ment of  our  institutions. 

For  the  quickening  of  patriotism  in  the  ancient 
republics  resort  was  had  to  mythology,  and  legend. 
We  stir  our  hearts  and  the  hearts  of  our  children,  and 
teach  the  value  of  our  institutions,  by  recalling  the 
lives  and  deeds  and  precepts  of  those  who  brought  to 
the  field  unsurpassed  valor  and  endurance  and  to  the 
council  a  statesmanship  which  devised  the  most  intri- 
cate form  of  government  ever  known  and  the  most 
efficacious  for  the  preservation  of  the  liberties  of  all 

59 


(K) 

the  generations  which  may  comprehend  its  value  and 
respect  the  restraints  which  it  imposes.  By  as  much 
as  we  honor  those  whose  valor  and  patience  expelled 
tyranny  from  these  shores,  and  those  whose  profound 
statesmanship  enshrined  the  achievement  in  a  per- 
manent constitution,  by  so  much  should  we  honor  those 
who  in  the  following  years  have  developed  the  might 
of  that  instrument  by  matchless  adjudications  and 
wise  laws,  and  who  in  peace  and  war  have  maintained 
our  heritage  and  led  us  by  the  paths  which  nations 
tread  with  honor.  And  so  for  the  purposes  of  ad- 
monition, instruction  and  emulation  we  are  one  with 
this  line  of  immortals  with  the  earlier  of  whom  our 
grandfathers  were  contemporaries,  and  with  the  later 
some  of  us  who  are  not  yet  old  lived  in  the  relation 
of  close  personal  friendship. 

Among  these  in  worthy  companionship  is  the 
name  of  William  McKinley.  If  I  were  eloquent  I  could 
thrill  you  with  not  overdrawn  portrayals  of  his  de- 
votion to  wife  and  mother,  of  his  fidelity  to  military 
duty,  of  his  high  honor  in  politics,  and  of  his  self- 
abnegation  when  obligation  to  friends  was  involved, 
and  of  his  longing  for  the  honor  of  his  country  and 
the  well  being  of  his  fellow  men.  But  mere  eulogy 
would  fall  short  of  the  highest  purpose  of  this  occa- 
sion. We  are  yet  too  near  to  his  career  and  too  much 
disturbed  by  the  atrocious  crime  which  ended  it  to 
analyze  his  character  with  exactness.  But  some 
sources  of  his  power  and  efficiency  lie  upon  the  sur- 
face. Whether  from  innate  qualities  or  from  educa- 
tion, his  purposes  were  carefully  formed,  and  his  de- 
votion to  their  accomplishment  was  complete.  At  the 
age  of  17  he  entered  the  army,  one  of  the  very  youngest 
of  the  magnificent  host  who  asserted  the  might  of  the 


61 

nation  to  enforce  the  rule  of  a  lawfully  ascertained 
majority.  In  the  army  he  was  disciplined  in  self  re- 
straint and  prepared  for  later  civil  and  military  duties. 
The  years  of  his  public  service  were  notable  for  his 
abiding  subordination  to  the  laws  prescribing  and 
limiting  his  official  duties.  His  great  influence  was 
due  in  a  large  degree  to  the  high  personal  esteem  in 
which  he  was  held  by  his  contemporaries.  He  did 
seek  an  understanding  of  public  opinion  because  he 
was  wise  enough  to  appreciate  the  folly  of  enactments 
which  are  not  sustained  by  the  general  will.  The  flow 
of  his  blood  was  never  checked  by  the  dreary  isolation 
which  surrounds  one  who  imagines  himself  to  be  the 
sole  repository  of  virtue  and  wisdom.  He  appreciated 
and  revered  the  patience  and  wisdom  with  which  the 
fathers  had  gathered  the  fruits  of  Magna  Charta  and 
of  the  Revolution,  and  distributed  the  powers  of  gov- 
ernment among  coordinate  departments  for  the  secur- 
ing of  individual  liberty.  He  recognized  the  virtue  and 
wisdom,  not  only  of  the  fathers,  but  of  his  contempor- 
aries. He  did  not  believe  that  our  institutions  had 
so  failed  of  their  purpose  as  to  develop  a  generation  of 
voters  who  persistently  choose  the  least  worthy  of 
their  number  for  positions  of  honor  and  authority. 
His  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  the  people  was  founded 
upon  the  deep  conviction  that  they  were  worthy.  So 
admirable  was  his  attitude  toward  his  fellows  and 
toward  those  exercising  the  functions  of  the  other  de- 
partments of  the  government,  that  his  political  ad- 
versaries and  his  rivals  in  his  own  party  were  his 
personal  friends  ready  to  rejoice  at  his  preferment 
and  in  the  success  of  his  measures. 

Most   of   his   formative   years   were   devoted   to 
studies  and  pursuits  which  qualify  for  statesmanship. 


62 

But  called  to  the  office  of  President  because  of  tested 
qualities  so  developed,  an  unexpected  foreign  war  soon 
demonstrated  that  the  ardent  lover  of  peace  was  fully 
qualified  to  discharge  the  duties  of  Commander  in 
Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy.  The  world  wondered 
at  the  promptness  with  which,  under  his  leadership, 
enough  of  our  resources  to  meet  the  emergency  was 
called  forth  from  a  condition  of  profound  peace.  His 
judgment  of  men  was  unerring,  his  vision  far.  In 
cabinet,  at  foreign  courts,  on  sea  and  land,  stations 
of  responsibility  were  occupied  by  men  who  filled  them. 
It  was  not  by  accident,  but  by  his  careful  design,  that 
our  ships  were  so  admirably  distributed — that  Dewey 
was  at  Manila  and  Sampson  at  Santiago.  It  was  due 
to  his  sagacity  and  firmness  that  the  enemy  sur- 
rendered that  position  instead  of  evacuating  it.  The 
glamour  of  war  did  not  obscure  his  perception  of  the 
purposes  for  which  it  was  waged,  nor  dim  his  vision 
of  the  splendor  which  the  nation  was  to  achieve  by 
the  ways  of  peace.  He  knew  from  the  beginning  that 
victory  would  be  ours,  that  to  create  waste  places  in 
the  earth  was  no  part  of  our  mission,  and  that  civili- 
zation would  require  us  to  set  up  and  maintain  a  sov- 
ereignty wherever  we  should  destroy  one.  None  but 
the  highest  qualities  of  statesmanship  could  have  so 
adapted  the  terms  of  peace  to  realize  and  secure  the 
just  results  of  a  successful  war. 

The  wise  designer  of  public  policies,  he  added 
charm  and  grace  to  reason  to  secure  their  adoption. 
Born  to  toil,  he  wore  the  simple  virtues  of  his  youth 
over  the  more  than  kingly  robes  which  he  had  placed 
upon  him.  It  was  inevitable  that  he  should  be  de- 
veloped by  such  institutions  as  ours,  for  his  varied 


63 

experiences  and  achievements  would  have  defied  classi- 
fication in  any  land  of  fixed  social  conditions. 

We  do  not  accept  the  suggestion  that  his  early 
death  conduced  to  the  stability  of  his  fame.  In  con- 
templating the  life  and  death  of  such  a  man  there  is 
no  consolation  in  the  thought  that  the  grave  shields 
from  temptation  and  exempts  from  conflict.  He  was 
cast  in  heroic  mold.  If  the  years  of  the  patriarchs  had 
been  allowed  him  he  would  have  held  his  way  blameless 
through  them  all,  and  he  loved  the  conflict  for  the 
right.  Every  good  cause  is  weaker  today  because  he  is 
not  here.  In  all  the  course  of  time  there  will  be  no 
generation  but  would  have  been  happier  and  better 
if  he  had  lived  longer.  His  last  public  utterance  was 
for  the  greatness  of  the  nations  through  peace  and  fra- 
ternity. We  may  not  wholly  appropriate  the  love  of 
this  cosmopolitan  in  philanthropy,  for  it  is  the  herit- 
age of  mankind.  But  from  intimate  association  he 
became  peculiarly  our  friend.  For  which  of  us  does 
memory  perform  an  office  more  welcome  than  when  it 
recalls  the  kindly  face  we  cannot  see  and  his  cheery 
greeting  now  silent? 

Have  we  drawn  all  the  lessons  which  are  plainly 
suggested  by  his  life  and  death?  Certainly  we  have 
not.  The  toleration  of  schools  of  anarchy  means  the 
continuance  of  a  condition  in  which  the  stamp  of  pub- 
lic approval  placed  upon  an  honored  citizen  will  be 
translated  into  "the  fatal  asterisk  of  death."  It  also 
denotes  our  failure  in  the  performance  of  grave  inter- 
national obligations. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  we  asserted 
a  demand  against  England  for  damages  resulting  from 
her  negligent  failure  to  perform  the  duty  imposed 
upon  her  by  the  law  among  nations  to  prevent  the 


64 

arming  of  privateers  and  their  issuing  from  her  ports 
to  prey  upon  our  commerce.  The  duty  implied  in  our 
demand  was  admitted.  The  negligent  failure  to  per- 
form it  was  denied.  The  question  was  decided  in  our 
favor  by  distinguished  arbitrators  and  the  damages 
awarded  were  paid.  Nearly  continuously  from  that 
time  until  now  we  have  tolerated  within  our  borders, 
the  schools  of  anarchy  and  their  kindergartens — the 
schools  of  socialism.  The  destruction  of  public  order 
and  the  murder  of  rulers  have  been  openly  taught. 
Processions  have  marched  the  streets  of  cities  bearing 
flags  alien  and  hostile,  not  only  to  our  government, 
but  to  all  others.  Officers  have  been  murdered  in  pur- 
suance of  these  teachings  and  in  the  execution  of  con- 
spiracies consistent  with  them.  Some  of  those  under- 
going imprisonment  for  such  overt  acts  of  murder 
were  pardoned  by  a  governor  of  one  of  the  states,  and 
that  official  has  since  been  received  with  honor  and 
tolerated  as  a  teacher  of  political  sociology.  The  nat- 
ural results  of  such  toleration  and  encouragement  have 
followed  with  bewildering  rapidity.  A  few  years  ago 
the  members  of  this  association  compassed  the  murder 
of  the  head  of  the  existing  government  of  Italy,  and 
pursuant  to  their  appointment  a  wretch  left  our  shores 
to  execute  their  base  decree,  and  he  executed  it.  The 
foul  deed  filled  pitying  men  with  horror  which  only 
encouraged  the  teachers  of  crime.  The  propagation 
of  their  doctrines  continued,  and  we  now  contemplate 
their  latest  achievement. 

Perhaps  we  may  not  hope  for  the  cessation  of 
homicides  resulting  from  such  promptings  as  spring 
spontaneously  in  depraved  hearts  and  disordered 
minds;  but  the  mentally  and  morally  weak  are  prone 
to  act  upon  suggestion,  and  the  toleration  of  schools 


65 

of  criminal  suggestion  is  a  national  disgrace.  That 
the  foul  deed  we  now  contemplate  was  due  to  such 
suggestion  is  made  clear  by  the  assassin's  associations 
and  his  declarations.  It  is  the  lesson  of  history  that 
public  disorder  is  the  tyrant's  welcome  and  that  liberty 
is  never  secure  except  when  its  excesses  are  restrained 
and  prevented  by  public  law. 

McKinley's  memory  belongs  to  mankind  and  to 
the  ages.  His  will  not  be  the  first  American  name  to 
be  repeated  with  affection  and  reverence  wherever 
upon  the  earth  men  and  women  honor  private  and 
public  virtue,  and  aspiring  to  the  greatest  attainable 
happiness  for  themselves  and  their  children,  pray  for 
equal  opportunities  secured  by  wise  laws  faithfully  ad- 
ministered. His  legacy  to  mankind  is  an  all-embrac- 
ing philanthropy.  To  this  nation  it  is  an  illustrious 
example  of  manifold  responsibilities  bravely  borne, 
and  of  the  gravest  duties  well  performed.  Amid  these 
scenes  and  in  this  generation  every  tribute  will  be  in- 
complete which  does  not  recall  the  charm  and  fidelity 
with  which  he  honored  personal  friendship. 


McKINLEY 

JOHN  WESLEY  HILL, 

Pastor  Metropolitan  Temple, 
New  York  City. 

This  address  was  delivered  January  28th,  1911,  at 
the  Tippecanoe  banquet  at  The  Hollenden. 

Other  speakers  were  Henry  Lewis  Stimson,  now 
Secretary  of  War  under  President  Taft,  Congressman 
Frank  B.  Willis  of  Ada,  Ohio,  and  Henry  B.  Chap- 
man, Judge  Common  Pleas  Court,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Toastmaster,  William  L.  Day,  U.  S.  Dist.  Attorney, 
introduced  the  speaker. 

*      *       + 

The  stonecutters  of  the  Parthenon  were  so  blinded 
by  the  dust  of  the  chiseling  that  they  could  not  see 
the  full  glory  of  the  temple  which  leaped  from  the 
brain  of  Ictinus,  and  crowned  the  hills  of  Athens. 
Neither  can  we  fully  appreciate  the  symmetry  and 
magnificence  of  this  great  personality  who  has  risen 
in  our  midst  and  blinded  our  eyes  with  the  brilliancy 
of  his  achievements — a  man  in  whom  the  great  qual- 
ities blended  like  the  commingling  of  many  streams ; 
patience  without  indolence;  meekness  without  stu- 
pidity; courage  without  rashness;  caution  without 
fear;  justice  without  vindictiveness ;  piety  without  in- 
fidelity, and  faith  without  superstition — such  was 
William  McKinley. 

"The  elements  so  mixed  in  him  that  great  nature 
might  stand  up  and  say  to  all  the  world,  'This  is  a 
man,  aye,  and  such  a  man  that,  taken  all  in  all,  we 
shall  not  see  his  like  again.' '  His  statesmanship  was 
vindicated  by  results.  A  surgeon  once  said,  "We  had 
a  splendid  operation  in  our  hospital  today,  you  ought 

66 


67 

to  have  seen  it."  Some  one  asked,  "Did  the  man 
live?"  The  surgeon  replied,  "No,  they  always  die  in 
that  operation,  but  it  was  a  splendid  operation."  That 
surgeon  could  not  apply  his  rule  to  statesmanship. 
Statesmanship  must  be  a  successful  operation.  Meas- 
ured by  this  law,  "McKinley's  statesmanship  reaches 
the  highest  type." 

When  he  went  to  the  White  House  we  were  a 
moderate  sea  power  in  these  western  waters,  content 
with  our  coast  and  lakes.  We  were  still  practicing  the 
advice  of  George  Washington  in  his  farewell  address 
to  beware  of  entangling  alliances  with  the  old  world. 
That  was  just  the  advice  we  needed  at  a  time  when 
we  were  limited  in  numbers  and  resources,  when  our 
population  along  the  seaboard  was  sparse  and  we  knew 
very  little  of  the  great  inland  empire  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  but  since  then  the  world  has  moved,  and 
America  leads  the  world.  We  are  no  longer  a  hermit 
nation;  we  have  stepped  from  isolation  into  the  in- 
finitude of  a  worldwide  relationship. 

This  new  era  of  international  influence  and  power 
dates  from  the  day  that  William  McKinley  moved  into 
the  White  House.  Prior  to  that,  we  were  glad  to  oc- 
cupy any  place  at  the  International  Festal  Board, 
where  we  never  failed  to  wear  our  little  anti-expansion 
bib,  which  at  last  looked  like  a  cotton  patch  on  the 
front  of  our  blue  uniform. 

But  today,  where  Uncle  Sam  sits  is  the  head  of 
the  table.  The  financial  center  of  the  world  has  been 
transferred  from  Bond  Street  to  Wall  Street,  and  the 
political  center  from  Windsor  Castle  to  the  White 
House.  All  eyes  are  upon  our  William  the  Silent.  He 
is  the  international  McGregor.  His  hand  is  on  the 
carver  and  his  foot  upon  the  call  bell.  He  dishes  out 
all  the  supplies.  Our  commerce  is  going  everywhere, 


68 

our  sails  whiten  all  seas.  The  city  of  London  is 
lighted  tonight  with  gas  extracted  from  Alabama  coal, 
so  that  we  are  actually  "carrying  coals  to  Newcastle." 

Providence  pushed  us  into  this  new  era.  We 
were  expanded  without  being  consulted  upon  the  ques- 
tion. When  God  has  a  task  to  be  performed,  He  al- 
ways finds  the  right  agent.  Jonah  was  loath  to  start 
upon  his  missionary  tour,  and  so  the  Lord  whaled  him 
to  his  task.  We  were  unwilling  to  start  upon  our 
providential  errand,  and  so  He  permitted  us  to  be 
blown  to  ours.  We  were  expanded  without  being  con- 
sulted upon  the  question. 

One  night  Spain  planted  a  magazine  under  the 
Maine,  and  then  we  were  blown  all  around  creation. 
We  went  up  into  the  air  and  came  down  everywhere 
— to  stay!  Spain  expanded  us  and  we  disbanded 
Spain.  We  laid  aside  our  anti-expansion  bib  and 
taught  Spain  not  to  fool  with  the  stars  and  stripes. 
We  stripped  her  until  she  saw  stars.  And  so  today 
we  are  one  nation.  A  power  that  must  be  reckoned 
with  in  the  adjustment  of  boundary  lines  and  spheres 
of  political  and  commercial  influence. 

The  great  Talleyrand  once  said,  "Language  is  the 
art  of  concealing  ideas."  Diplomacy  for  the  most 
part  looks  one  way  and  goes  the  other.  Under  the 
magic  touch  of  William  McKinley  a  new  diplomacy 
was  created,  a  diplomacy  which  set  before  the  world 
exactly  what  he  thought  ought  to  be  done  and  how  he 
intended  to  do  it.  We  see  this  illustrated  in  the  way 
he  handled  the  great  problems  at  home  and  abroad. 
He  first  and  alone  recognized  the  importance  of  pre- 
serving the  integrity  of  China.  A  long  war  between 
China  and  the  western  nations  meant  the  partitioning 
of  China  for  the  liquidation  of  the  financial  obliga- 


69 

tions  involved  in  such  a  war.  To  dismember  China 
would  involve  two  great  unmeasured  worldwide  ca- 
lamities, namely,  the  perpetuation  of  heathenism  by 
the  centuries,  and  the  narrowing  of  the  world's  march 
by  the  loss  of  the  "most  favored  nation"  clause. 

McKinley  had  the  vision  of  the  statesman.  He 
saw  the  importance  of  the  point  at  issue,  and  he  put 
unmeasured  emphasis  upon  the  necessity  of  maintain- 
ing the  integrity  of  China.  It  necessitated  keeping 
the  Chinese  minister  at  Washington,  and  the  continu- 
ance of  diplomatic  relations  with  China  during  the 
Boxer  riots. 

True,  Chinese  soldiers  were  uniting  with  the  Box- 
ers, and  the  empress  dowager  encouraged  and  re- 
warded them,  and  promoted  the  enemies  of  the  "for- 
eign devils."  Still,  McKinley  called  it  a  "Riot,"  and 
maintained  peace  with  the  Chinese  government.  He 
brought  all  the  powers  to  the  same  ground,  and  thereby 
averted  a  long  war,  reducing  the  damages  so  much 
that  they  could  be  settled  in  money  instead  of  land. 
And  today  our  country  is  the  residuary  legatee  of  the 
statesmanship  of  McKinley  in  solving  the  problems  of 
the  Far  East. 

Japan,  Corea,  and  China  with  five  hundred  mil- 
lions of  people,  three  times  the  population  of  Europe, 
one-third  the  population  of  the  human  race,  are  all 
facing  this  way.  Long  before  the  close  of  this  century 
these  will  be  Christian  nations.  Then  they  will  de- 
mand the  products  of  our  soul  and  soil;  great  cities 
will  spring  up  in  the  pathway  of  this  widening  trade, 
our  deserts  will  be  crowded  by  industrious  millions, 
cheap  electric  power  will  lift  the  water  onto  those  rich 
plains  until  booming  like  a  garden,  they  will  support 


70 

a  population  as  dense  as  is  now  supported  in  the  valley 
of  the  Ganges. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  the  swan,  the  night  be- 
fore it  dies,  sings  a  wonderful  song.  This  may  be  a 
myth,  but  it  is  no  myth  that  William  McKinley,  the 
last  day  of  his  public  life,  gave  expression  to  an  utter- 
ance which  we  regard  today  as  a  legacy  of  priceless 
value. 

That  last  speech  delivered  at  the  Pan-American 
Fair  will  pass  down  in  the  history  of  this  government 
like  a  clear,  sharp,  bas-relief,  cut  on  a  precious  stone, 
showing  President  McKinley  with  his  face  toward  the 
future. 

Protection  and  reciprocity;  Arbitration  rather 
than  War;  Commerce  and  not  Slaughter;  One  great 
international  family;  Friends  and  not  Enemies;  these 
were  the  thrilling  themes  which  occupied  his  mind, 
constituting  an  Epic  worthy  of  Greek  chorus.  And 
today,  we  are  just  entering  upon  the  full  fruition  of 
that  incomparable  death  song. 

Protection,  modified  to  changed  conditions,  scien- 
tifically arranged  and  impartially  executed, — protec- 
tion for  revenue  to  meet  the  expense  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  to  protect  American  industries  from  com- 
petition with  the  pauperized  labor  of  the  old  world, — 
protection,  representing  the  difference  in  the  cost  of 
production  at  home  and  abroad, — this  is  the  protection 
which  William  McKinley  was  the  apostle  of,  the  Re- 
publican party  is  the  embodiment,  and  William  How- 
ard Taft  is  the  defender. 

Peace,  with  self-respect  and  honor,  recognizing 
the  possibilities  of  war,  and  yet  anxious  and  alert  to 
avoid  the  horrors  of  war,  peace,  with  ample  coast 
defense,  with  the  fortification  of  the  Panama  Canal, 


71 

with  an  army  ready  for  any  emergency  and  a  navy 
second  to  none  on  the  high  seas,  and  yet  all  these 
compacted  forces  and  resources  consecrated  to  the 
arbitrament  of  the  pen,  rather  than  the  roar  of  the 
artillery, — this  was  the  prophetic  dream  of  William 
McKinley.  And  this  is  the  pacific  statesmanship  of 
President  Taft,  who  is  now  appealing  for  an  inter- 
national court  of  arbitration,  where  international 
differences  may  be  settled  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  the 
love  of  man. 

Reciprocity,  this  is  the  password  given  by  Mc- 
Kinley in  his  last  round  of  the  sentries,  and  it  is  the 
password  taken  up  and  repeated  by  President  Taft, 
within  the  past  forty-eight  hours,  in  his  special  mes- 
sage to  congress,  appealing  for  a  reciprocity  treaty 
with  Canada,  an  appeal  which  should  fire  the  enthusi- 
asm of  the  nation,  and  speedily  result  in  such  con- 
gressional legislation  as  shall  unite  in  reciprocal  bonds 
two  peoples  linked  together  by  race,  language,  politi- 
cal institutions  and  geographical  proximity. 

Through  such  a  trade  agreement  between  Canada 
and  the  United  States  these  countries,  touching  along 
a  boundary  line  of  three  thousand  miles,  will  pass  in 
and  out  of  a  common  camp.  Reciprocity  is  the  slot  in 
which  protection  can  work  without  straining  the  ma- 
chinery. It  exchanges  exclusiveness  for  neighborli- 
ness  and  brotherhood.  Proclaimed  from  the  Pan- 
American  Fair,  it  struck  and  fitted  the  Americas  from 
pole  to  pole.  These  continents  are  bound  together. 
They  are  geographically  indissoluble.  They,  have  com- 
mon problems  and  face  a  common  destiny.  They  are 
linked  by  the  great  law  of  supply  and  demand.  Lying 
on  opposite  sides  of  the  equator,  they  command  all  the 
seasons  and  all  the  crops  all  the  time. 


72 

We  need  to  cultivate  our  South  American  trade 
also;  we  need  a  rapid  steamship  line  plying  from  con- 
tinent to  continent.  We  need  to  restore  our  flag  to 
the  high  seas.  It  is  a  shame  that  we  should  permit 
the  South  American  trade  to  be  appropriated  by 
Europe.  The  time  has  come  for  more  intimate  com- 
mercial relations  between  the  peoples  of  the  western 
hemisphere,  and  especially  between  the  millions  of 
the  temperate  and  trophic  zones. 

Teetering  across  the  equator  we  can  multiply  the 
blessings  of  each  and  grow  rich  and  strong  together. 
The  connection  can  only  be  made  by  express  trains, 
and  fast  sailing  refrigerator  steamers,  means  for  the 
interchange  of  products  by  land  and  sea,  under  a 
reciprocal  treaty  which  shall  make  each  the  richer 
and  stronger  through  the  equitable  interchange  of 
natural  products.  Thus  united  we  can  command  the 
world's  greatest  markets  and  secure  a  commercial 
future  that  shall  astonish  the  statistician. 

And  so  we  see  that  McKinley's  fame,  like  Linclon's 
and  Grant's,  rests  upon  "the  arduous  greatness  of 
things  achieved."  Great  indeed  was  his  career. 

A  soldier — he  marched  under  the  flag  from  the 
Ohio  to  the  Gulf! 

A  patriot — he  offered  his  life  for  the  preservation 
of  the  union ! 

A  legislator — he  had  the  most  prominent  name  in 
congress ! 

A  statesman — he  secured  the  enactment  of  laws 
bearing  upon  his  own  nation,  that  embraced  great  and 
vital  interests  of  every  civilized  nation — and  lifted 
his  own  country  from  deepest  distress  to  greatest 
prosperity ! 


73 

A  leader — he  directed  a  war  that  liberated  millions 
of  people  from  the  most  cruel  and  bloodthirsty  despot- 
ism and  drove  that  despotism  out  of  the  western  hemis- 
phere in  ninety  days! 

An  administrator — he  gave  the  country  an  ad- 
ministration that  does  not  suffer  when  compared  with 
the  great  administrations  of  the  past. 

A  president — he  has  adorned  our  history  with 
such  achievements  that  their  luminousness  shines 
brighter  than  the  noonday  sun,  has  penetrated  the  dark 
bosom  of  heathendom,  and  their  suddenness  has 
shocked  all  nations,  and  their  greatness  has  made  the 
whole  world  wonder. 


MARCUS  A.  HANNA, 

UNITED  STATES  SENATOR  FROM  OHIO  1898  TO  1904. 

ONE  OF  McKINLEY'S  CLOSEST  FKIENDS  AND 

GENERAL  OF   HIS    POLITICAL 

CAMPAIGNS. 


WILLIAM  McKINLEY 

DAN  F.  BRADLEY,  PASTOR  PILGRIM  CHURCH, 
CLEVELAND,  O. 

This  address  was  delivered  at  the  annual  banquet, 
held  in  Chamber  of  Commerce  Hall,  on  January  29th, 
1912. 

This  banquet  was  the  most  largely  attended  of  any 
in  the  history  of  the  Tippecanoe  Club. 

William  H.  Taft,  President  of  the  United  States, 
was  the  guest  of  honor. 

Among  the  speakers  were  William  R.  Coates,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Club,  Congressman  Frank  M.  Nye  of 
Minnesota,  and  President  Taft. 

Mr.  Bradley  was  introduced  by  Toastmaster,  Wil- 
liam L.  Day,  U.  S.  District  Judge. 

*      +       * 

It  is  one  of  the  qualities  of  this  Tippecanoe  Club, 
that  it  is  loyal  to  the  men  it  trusts  with  leadership — 
living,  it  follows  them  unflinchingly  in  good  report  and 
in  ill — when  they  pass  beyond  the  strife  of  tongues 
and  the  scowl  of  envy,  it  glorifies  and  honors  their 
memory.  It  is  one  of  the  gracious  customs  of  this  Club 
which  for  all  the  three  score  and  ten  years  of  its  his- 
tory has  stood  for  the  highest  and  best  things  in  po- 
litical life,  that  once  a  year  it  comes  and  lays  a  fresh 
and  fragrant  wreath  upon  the  memory  of  its  most  il- 
lustrious member  who  has  gone  to  be  with  the  immor- 
tals, typifying  in  that  memorial  to  him  its  love  and 
reverence  for  all  those  saints  in  its  Calendar  "who  from 
their  labors  rest." 

For  of  all  the  long  list  of  noble  men  whom  it  has 
admired  and  followed  in  peace  and  in  war,  in  the  front 
rank  of  political  strife,  or  in  the  quiet  efforts  to  organ- 
ize and  furnish  the  sinews  of  the  fight — of  all  that  long 

77 


78 

list  from  Wm.  Henry  Harrison  down,  a  glorious  com- 
pany of  men  who  "went  abroad  redressing  human 
wrong,"  William  McKinley  stood  to  represent  the 
truest  spirit  of  high  patriotic  resolve.  So  that  he  has 
come  to  embody  for  us  the  ideals  of  a  citizenship  which 
dares,  and  suffers,  and  achieves,  and  knows  no  fear  ex- 
cept dishonor,  and  recognizes  that  nothing  but  coward- 
ice is  to  be  counted  as  defeat. 

And  it  needs  scarcely  to  be  said  here  that  this 
Tippecanoe  Club  is  engaged  in  no  perfunctory  task 
when  it  honors  his  memory  who  69  years  ago  was  born 
of  the  plain  iron  worker  of  Niles,  Ohio.     We  have 
not  been  engaged  as  a  Club  in  stoning  our  prophets 
when  living,  and  white-washing  their  tombs  when  they 
are  dead,  while  shedding  copious  but  reptilian  tears. 
This  Club  believed  in  McKinley,  stood  by  him  in  vic- 
tory and  never  forsook  him  in  defeat,  and  when  the 
storm  of  financial  failure  came,  and  that  wilder  temp- 
est of  calumny  beat  upon  him — men  here  in  this  room 
pledged  their  personal  credit  and  risked  their  personal 
reputations  as  they  rallied  about  him — even  more  en- 
thusiastically than  ever,  and  in  the  teeth  of  sneers  and 
jibes  backed  him  for  the  Governorship  and  for  higher 
honors,  and  marched  triumphantly  through  the  streets 
of  St.  Louis — as  it  helped  to  place  him  at  the  head  of 
the  great  party,  which  once  more  in  the  hour  of  the 
nation's  poverty  and  disaster,  should  win  a  deeper 
crimson  for  the  old  flag.    And  it  was  a  member  of  this 
very  Club,  who  as  the  fighting  general  of  the  Republi- 
can party  in  1896,  organized  and  informed  the  intelli- 
gence of  this  mighty  nation,  to  meet  the  subtle  soph- 
istries of  repudiation  and  socialistic  folly  and  defeat 
the  schemes  of  misguided  men  who  would  have  led  the 
republic  to  the  brink  of  ruin.     I  refer  to  our  beloved 


79 

friend  and  comrade  and  the  friend  of  McKinley,  Mar- 
cus A.  Hanna.  So  the  Tippecanoe  Club  now  honors 
McKinley,  in  sincerity  and  in  truth,  because  it  did  not 
need  to  be  converted  to  his  principles  after  his  death. 
For  the  Tippecanoe  Club,  while  it  has  sometimes  gone 
down  to  defeat,  has  never  in  defeat  lowered  its  flag. 
It  may  have  been  sometimes  whipped,  but  it  never  has 
been  yelloiv,  and  in  the  campaign  which  is  before  us, 
its  blood  is  red,  and  its  brain  is  clear,  and  its  purpose 
is  unwavering  and  its  loyalty  is  wholly  and  lovingly  to 
him  whom  it  followed  to  victory  in  1908,  the  great 
wise  President  of  the  Republic,  Wm.  H.  Taft.  And 
revering  and  honoring  McKinley's  memory  after  he 
has  gone,  it  declares  to  the  world,  now,  what  kind  of 
man  it  delights  to  follow  and  honor  in  life  as  well  as 
in  death. 

As  each  year  goes  by,  you  bring  to  this  occasion 
notable  tributes  of  strong  and  eloquent  utterance.  But 
as  I  read  over  these  annual  addresses  preserved  in  your 
archieves,  my  own  heart  sank — at  the  task  given  to 
me.  For  they  have  been  kings  of  speech  who  have 
here  delivered  their  tender  eulogies,  and  "what  can  a 
man  do  who  cometh  after  the  king?"  But  I  comfort 
myself  that  even  if  my  little  modest  wreath  of  bay, 
shall  seem  to  be  inadequate  as  compared  to  those  opu- 
lent offerings  of  roses  and  of  orchids  with  which  our 
hero's  memory  has  hitherto  been  decorated,  still  there 
will  be  a  certain  distinction  added  to  it  because  there 
sits  with  us  here  in  the  banquet  hall  to  lend  it  grace, 
that  living  leader  of  our  loyal  hearts  and  the  friend  of 
McKinley,  the  greatest  Republican  of  us  all. 

So  let  me  briefly  take  as  my  topic,  Wm.  McKinley, 
the  typical  citizen,  from  the  standpoint  of  our  Tippe- 
canoe Club.  And  for  my  text,  let  me  go  to  the  great 


80 

poet  of  modern  spirit,  Tennyson,  for  this  word,  modi- 
fied to  suit  our  own  land  and  time,  "Not  once  or  twice 
in  our  fair  country's  story — the  path  of  duty  was  the 
way  to  glory." 

"He,  that  ever  following  her  commands, 
On,  with  toil  of  heart,  and  knees,  and  hands, 
Thro'  the  long  gorge,  to  the  far  light,  has  won 
His  path  upward  and  prevail'd, 
Shall  find  the  toppling  crags  of  Duty  scaled 
Are  close  upon  the  shining  table-lands 
To  which  our  God  Himself  is  moon  and  sun." 

The  word   duty  spells  the  career  of  our  hero. 
Whatever  may  have  been  his  relation  to  it  in  the  early 
life  of  home  and  school — it  faced  him  with  stern  and 
grizzly  front — when  the  call  came  to  Ohio  men  to  de- 
fend the  flag.    He  was  then  18.     On  July  21,  1861— 
the  Union  forces  had  suffered  the  disastrous  defeat 
of  Bull  Run.    Nine  days  later  when  the  cause  looked 
dark,  Wm.   McKinley  enlisted  as   a   private  soldier. 
That  was  prophetic  of  the  man.     A  year  later  this 
boy  of  19,  a  sergeant  in  the  line,  was  carrying  hot 
coffee  and  warm  meat  at  the  peril  of  his  life  to  the  men 
of  the  23rd  Ohio  on  the  firing  line  at  the  bloody  battle 
of  Antietam.    For  that  brave  deed  Gov.  Tod  gave  him 
a  lieutenant's  commission,  and  Col.  Hayes,  afterward 
President,  appointed  him  to  his  staff.     As  the  war 
closed,  Abraham  Lincoln  brevetted  him   Major,   for 
gallant  and  meritorious  service,  at  the  battles  of  Ope- 
quan,  Cedar  Creek  and  Fisher's  Hill.      So  ended  that 
chapter.    The  boy  who  shouldered  his  musket  because  it 
was  duty — had  climbed  the  rugged  cliff  by  personal 
bravery  and  daring — and  thereafter  we  all  called  him 
tenderly  and  lovingly  "Major,"  for  he  had  earned  the 
name. 


81 

Twelve  years  go  by,  the  Major  has  meanwhile  been 
studying  law  and  finding  a  place  for  himself  in  the 
world's  work  which  no  longer  needed  soldiers.  More 
pathetic  than  the  College  graduate  without  a  job  or  a 
profession,  was  the  plight  of  these  young  ex-soldiers 
who  mustered  out  in  1865  had  spent  four  years  away 
from  home,  and  out  of  touch  with  ordinary  life.  An 
immigrant  could  get  a  job  on  the  railroad  or  the  fac- 
tory— but  what  could  a  young  man  of  22  do,  after  a  life 
in  the  field  and  camp,  especially  if  he  had  a  title  to 
uphold?  How  could  a  Major  be  a  Freshman  in  College 
or  dig  a  ditch?  But  Wm.  McKinley  cherished  no  il- 
lusions and  got  busy  at  once  with  his  profession.  In 
1868  he  won  the  position  of  Prosecuting  Attorney  of 
Stark  County,  the  only  Republican  elected  in  a  Demo- 
cratic county. 

Eight  years  later  in  '76,  he  was  drafted  to  contest 
the  Democratic  district,  the  old  18th — for  a  seat  in 
Congress.  Once  more  it  was  the  call  of  duty  to  defend 
a  cause.  And  that  cause  was  the  establishment  of  laws 
that  should  put  the  opportunity  to  labor  within  reach 
of  every  laboring  man.  It  was  a  losing  cause  then. 
The  people  were  clamoring  for  a  reduction  of  war- 
taxes.  All  the  Colleges  were  teaching  Free-trade.  The 
inflation  of  paper  money  had  come  to  an  end — and  the 
pinch  of  a  contracted  specie  basis  was  squeezing  the 
life  out  of  business — and  people  unreasonably  clamored 
against  the  war  tariff.  McKinley,  the  iron  worker,  in- 
stinctively stood  for  the  protection  of  the  American 
worker  against  foreign  competition ;  for  an  industrial 
rather  than  an  exclusively  agricultural  development  as 
he  had  as  a  boy  instinctively  stood  for  freedom  and  the 
Union.  It  was  the  call  of  duty  and  he  started  in  to 
make  the  fight  which  raged  fiercely  and  incessantly 


82 

for  twenty  years  till,  in  1896 — the  people  overwhelm- 
ingly endorsed  the  American  system  and  made  him 
President.  In  that  first  fight  in  the  fall  of  '76  he  won 
the  district,  and  won  it  again,  tho'  those  were  Demo- 
cratic years ;  for  Samuel  J.  Tilden  had  swept  the  coun- 
try against  Republican  ideas,  and  the  old  party  ap- 
peared to  be  crumbling  to  pieces.  With  varying  for- 
tunes the  fight  went  on.  The  Major  won  his  district 
once  by  8  votes — but  a  hostile  majority  in  the  House 
unseated  him.  But  he  came  back.  Finally  in  1890, 
he  secured  the  passage  of  the  McKinley  bill — but  the 
Democrats  had  redistricted  the  district  and  crowded 
him  out,  while  the  McKinley  bill  was  rebuked  by  the 
execration  of  the  people.  The  outcry  recently  heard 
against  the  Payne-Aldrich  bill  was  as  a  gentle  zephyr 
compared  with  the  furious  cyclone  that  caught  the 
men  who  voted  for  the  McKinley  bill  and  buried  them. 
Scarcely  enough  Republicans  were  elected  to  fill  the 
minority  share  of  the  Committees  of  the  House.  At 
every  fireside,  in  every  laborer's  home,  up  and  down 
the  country  highways,  men  and  women  were  taught  to 
despise  McKinley  because  he  was  taxing  the  tin  dishes 
of  the  kitchen,  and  the  tin  pail  of  the  working  man. 
It  was  a  terrible  slaughter,  that  election  of  1890,  pav- 
ing the  way  for  the  triumph  of  Cleveland  in  1892  and 
the  panic  of  1893.  Yet  the  tin  plate  duty  of  the  Mc- 
Kinley bill  actually  transferred  to  America  that  great 
and  growing  industry  employing  thousands  of  men. 

We  men  who  shout  and  vote  and  have  no  call  to 
hold  office  have  little  idea  of  the  life  of  the  man  who 
tries  to  do  his  duty  amid  the  rancor  of  political  clamor 
— and  suffers  silently  the  barbed  and  poisoned  arrow 
of  cartoon  and  inuendo,  and  the  gloating  brutality  that 


83 

encounters  a  man  who  is  outvoted  in  an  effort  to  fol- 
low his  well-formed  convictions. 

The  Minie  bullet  and  the  bursting  shrapnel  are 
merciful  as  compared  with  the  vicious  darts  of  the  ir- 
responsible scribbler  in  an  editorial  den.  For  you  can 
shoot  back  in  open  battle — but  how  are  you  ever  to 
reach  the  rhinoceros'  hide  of  the  villain  who  sends  out 
his  venomous  slur  from  the  secure  hiding  place  of  the 
newspaper  office?  Yet  in  all  these  years  of  fierce  po- 
litical contest,  McKinley  never  lost  control  of  his  own 
spirit.  I  remember  how  as  a  College  man,  I  read  with 
swelling  pride  his  modest  speech  defending  the  title 
to  his  seat — when  a  hostile  majority  in  the  House  had 
determined  to  unseat  him,  though  he  had  8  votes  more 
than  his  rival.  It  was  a  man's  appeal  for  justice- 
made  in  vain  to  that  tribunal — but  not  in  vain  to  the 
higher  Court — for  the  people  of  his  district  sent  him 
back  the  following  year.  Then  when  they  geryman- 
dered  his  Congressional  district  he  made  no  complaint 
—but  the  people  made  him  Governor.  In  all  of  this 
there  was  no  word  of  bitterness  or  rancor  from  him — 
and  since  that  time  the  American  people  have  been  less 
willing  to  allow  political  passion  to  work  its  evil  will. 
Since  the  days  of  McKinley — gerymanders  have  be- 
come unpopular — and  never  since  then  has  Congress 
unseated  a  man  for  political  reasons.  For  he  taught 
the  nation — the  chivalry  of  political  contest  without 
personal  malice.  For  twenty  years  McKinley  did  his 
duty  without  fear  or  favor,  making  laws  that  blessed 
and  benefited  every  man  and  woman  and  child  under 
the  flag — laws  that  developed  our  resources,  created 
great  States  out  of  the  desert,  spanned  the  continent 
with  double  rails  and  pipe  lines — and  offered  work  to 
every  idle  arm  and  every  unoccupied  brain  in  our  grow- 


84 

ing  nation.  For  who  is  the  greatest  benefactor  of  his 
kind  ?  Is  it  he  who  bestows  his  goods  to  feed  the  poor  ? 
He  is  entitled  to  great  credit  for  his  generosity.  Or 
is  it  he  who  having  amassed  a  great  fortune  endows 
Colleges  and  builds  libraries — to  extend  the  blessings 
of  letters  and  the  arts?  Certainly  his  meed  of  praise  is 
sure.  But  is  he  not  rather  the  greatest  of  all  these — 
who  gives  his  life  to  enabling  other  men  to  earn  their 
own  happiness,  and  amass  their  own  modest  compe- 
tence, and  secure  education  and  culture  for  their  own 
children,  by  placing  within  their  reach  that  self-re- 
specting work  which  makes  men — strong  and  good 
men,  who  love  their  homes  and  their  country. 

That  was  the  service  of  McKinley  in  his  20  years 
of  grueling  combat  for  the  American  system.  He  put 
value  into  every  rod  of  real  estate — he  reinforced  the 
good  right  arm  of  every  honest  man — he  made  it  possi- 
ble for  the  American  brain  to  conquer  the  obstacles  of 
nature — and  create  a  great  workshop  on  the  American 
continent.  In  so  doing  he  prodigiously  increased  the 
scope  and  influence  of  American  moral  and  spiritual 
ideals — and  caused  the  nation  to  leap  forward  with  ac- 
celerated pace  in  its  march  toward  human  happiness. 
When  the  Dingley  bill  was  passed  in  1897,  McKinley's 
great  service  for  industry  was  completed — and  the 
nation  took  its  rightful  place  of  influence  and  power 
among  the  mighty  workmen  of  mankind. 

And  that  brings  me  again  to  the  text  with  which 
I  started.  "Not  once  or  twice  in  our  fair  country's 
story — the  path  of  duty  was  the  way  to  glory."  With 
the  principle  of  protection  to  American  industry  estab- 
lished once  more,  until  perchance,  a  later  generation 
made  prosperous,  should  forget  the  lessons  of  indus- 
trial disaster;  there  loomed  upon  the  southern  hori- 


85 

zon  the  shadow  of  war.  No  man  ever  struggled 
in  a  more  agonized  Gethsemane,  that  that  bitter 
cup  should  pass,  than  McKinley.  But  the  war 
was  inevitable  and  however  disagreeable  and  distaste- 
ful, he  waged  it  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion.  In  its 
final  settlement  he  inflicted  upon  Spain  no  needless 
humiliation,  and  a  huge  indemnity,  was  paid  to  a  na- 
tion who  was  well  rid  of  colonies  that  only  sapped  her 
life.  It  is  a  certain  proof  that  President  McKinley 's 
magnanimous  treatment  of  an  unfortunate  nation  was 
appreciated  by  the  Spanish  people,  that  when  peace 
was  made,  Spain's  friendship  was  preserved  and  abides 
secure.  But  there  remained  for  him  the  severest  ques- 
tion of  duty,  that  ever  confronted  him.  What  should 
be  his  policy  regarding  this  territory  added  to  the  flag 
with  its  ignorant  populations  far  away  over  seas  ?  Was 
the  Constitution  big  enough  and  flexible  enough  to 
reach  to  the  Igorrote  and  the  Moro?  There  were  no 
precedents  to  follow.  The  easy  course  was  apparent, 
and  a  majority  of  Americans  favored  it.  To  scuttle 
out  of  the  Phillipines,  and  let  the  poor  devils  fight  it 
out  among  themselves,  or,  turn  them  over  for  a  con- 
sideration to  ambitious  world  powers  like  Germany 
and  Japan,  and  recover  in  their  price  the  total  cost  of 
the  war.  The  more  difficult  and  kindly  plan  was  to 
occupy  the  place  of  benevolent  guardian  to  these  weak 
and  ignorant  peoples,  and  at  great  sacrifice  lead  them 
gently  into  ways  of  civilization  and  peace. 

But  to  do  that  involved  a  new  conception  of  our 
national  duty — a  larger  realization  of  the  brotherhood 
of  man — a  profounder  grasp  upon  the  fact  that  the 
ideals  of  the  American  republic  belonged  not  only  to  its 
own  citizens  but  to  all  mankind.  President  McKinley 
was  fortunate  at  that  time  in  having  at  his  side  a 


86 

group  of  the  wisest,  truest,  biggest  men  who  ever  con- 
stituted a  President's  advisers  and  aides ;  such  men  as 
Elihu  Root,  Judge  Day,  John  Hay  and  Wm.  H.  Taft 
with  McKinley,  could  solve  any  political  or  legal  or 
administrative  problem  ever  presented  to  the  puzzled 
mind  of  man.    Such  a  group  sitting  in  seats  of  power 
at  Berlin  or  London  or  Paris  today  would  assure  the 
peace  of  humanity  for  all  time.    That  he  was  able  to 
summon  such  intellectual  and  moral  giants  to  his  aid, 
and  hold  their  loyalty  in  a  grip  so  firm  and  free  from 
jealousy,  marks  him  one  of  the  strongest  figures  in  our 
history.    It  was  clear  that  to  keep  and  administer  the 
Phillipines  and  Porto  Rico  while  surrendering  Cuba 
to  its  people,  would  require  great  sacrifice,  incur  ter- 
rible political  danger,  and  invite  the  sentimental  ex- 
ecration of  millions  of  good  people.     But  "once  more 
the  path  of  duty  was  the  way  to  glory"  and  McKinley 
as  always,  so  then,  followed  it — with  unflinching  feet, 
with  the  result  that  the  nation  found  itself  not  only 
patiently  sitting  down  to  teach  the  little  brown  men 
how  to  live  the  life  of  civilized  folk,  but  unexpectedly 
found  itself  face  to  face  with  tremendous  issues  in 
Japan  and  in  China — and  ready,  because  of  its  pres- 
ence at  Manila  to  lend  a  hand  at  the  birth  pangs  of  a 
new  and  yet  to  be  glorious  civilization  in  old  Cathay. 
A  hundred  years  from  now — nay  a  thousand  years 
from  today  when  justice  and  peace  shall  prevail  every- 
where— historians  will  tell  with  eloquence  of  that  de- 
cision of  Mr.  McKinley,  not  to  turn  over  Manila  to 
Aguinaldo — not  to  scuttle  out  of  the  orient;  not  to 
sneak  the  old  flag  away  from  the  disagreeable  muddle 
in  the  western  Pacific — but  to  stay  and  organize,  and 
teach  school  and  insist  upon  the  "open  door"  and  pre- 
sent before  the  land-hungry  military  powers  of  Europe 


87 

the  calm,  undisturbed,  yet  resolute  front,  of  a  free 
people  and  a  powerful;  who  wanted  nothing  but  jus- 
tice in  the  orient,  and  would  be  content  with  nothing 
short  of  justice  in  the  dealing  of  the  nations  at  Peking. 
When  he  stood  before  the  people  for  the  last  time  at 
Buffalo — the  nation  that  had  trusted  him  found  itself 
under  his  leadership  at  the  summit  of  its  glory  and 
wealth  and  power. 

13o  the  memory  of  our  hero  is  secure.  For  the 
achievements  of  his  life  are  the  heritage  of  all  man- 
kind. Not  only  in  Canton  and  in  Cleveland  will  they 
speak  of  him,  but  in  lands  beyond  the  seas,  under  the 
tropical  skies,  under  the  palms  of  Cuba,  the  bamboos 
of  Mindanao  and  the  pines  of  Manchuria,  the  school 
teacher  will  gather  her  brood  of  brown  faced  or  slant- 
eyed  boys  and  girls — and  tell  of  the  days  when  Spain 
hauled  down  her  flag  at  Havana,  or  when  Russian  and 
German,  and  Frenchman  and  Japanese  camped  in  Pe- 
king to  parcel  out  the  land  of  celestials — of  those  days 
when  there  rose  up  one  strong,  patient,  soldierly  man 
in  the  Capitol  at  Washington — who  stayed  the  fury  of 
disorder  in  the  islands,  and  broke  up  the  plans  of  the 
national  bandits  in  China,  and  made  the  beginning  of 
a  new  Nation  in  the  Carribean  Sea,  and  saved  the  old- 
est nation  from  dissolution  in  the  dragon  land.  And 
in  accents  strange  to  us,  and  out  of  the  mouths  of  babes 
and  sucklings  yet  unborn,  there  will  be  paid  to  him  the 
tribute  of  little  children  upon  whose  country  and 
whose  homes  he  laid  the  gentle  hand  of  peace. 
"His  work  is  done. 

But  while  the  races  of  mankind  endure 
Let  his  great  example  stand 
Colossal,  seen  of  every  land, 
And  keep  the  soldier  firm,  the  statesman  pure, 
Till  in  all  lands,  and  thro'  all  human  story 
The  path  of  duty  be  the  way  to  glory." 


WILLIAM  McKINLEY— MAN  AND  PATRIOT. 

ANDREW  B.  MELDRUM,  D.  D. 

This  address  has  been  kindly  furnished  the  pub- 
lishers in  advance  of  its  delivery  at  the  annual  Mc- 
Kinley  Day  banquet,  to  insure  its  publication  in  this 
volume.  It  will  be  enough  to  say  that  while  going 
to  press  arrangements  are  under  way  for  this  meeting 
at  the  Hotel  Statler  and  distinguished  speakers  are 
expected,  and  interest  in  the  occasion  was  never  more 
deep  and  keen. 

*      *       * 

I  have  not  the  slightest  hope  at  this  time  of  being 
able  to  say  anything  new.  But  no  matter.  It  may  be 
good  for  me  to  say  and  good  for  you  to  hear  what  has 
often  been  said,  and  as  often  heard  before.  We  do  not 
become  weary  with  the  countenance  of  a  beloved  friend, 
though  we  look  upon  it  every  day.  Neither  do  we  re- 
gard it  as  a  waste  of  time  to  recall  the  familiar  qual- 
ities of  head  and  of  heart  which,  in  a  friend  no  longer 
by  our  side,  commanded  our  esteem  and  won  our  enthu- 
siastic devotion.  To  contemplate  the  nobleness  of  a 
noble  man,  helps  to  make  that  nobleness  our  own.  The 
recognition  of  greatness  is  next  in  rank  to  the  posses- 
sion of  it.  The  things  that  really  count  in  memory  are 
the  things  of  character.  The  ultimate  standard  of 
judgment  among  men  is  a  moral  one.  Death  clears  off 
all  adventitious  and  accidental  details,  clarifies  vision 
and  shows  us  the  essential  things  in  a  man's  life.  When 
judgment  is  thus  purified  by  the  fact  of  death,  our 
standard  becomes  not  capacity  but  character.  Reputa- 
tion takes  on  a  moral  coloring.  Instinctively  we  feel 
that  there  is  but  one  thing  that  really  counts;  other 
things  drop  off  and  disappear.  Things  take  a  different 

89 


90 

perspective.  Some  of  the  things  that  once  counted 
most  fall  into  the  background,  and  the  simple  qualities 
of  moral  character  stand  in  their  natural  precedence. 
The  memory  of  a  good  man  is  blessed.  The  memory 
of  a  bad  man  is  infamy.  This  is  the  rule  of  history  and 
experience,  though  we  may  think  we  can  point  to  ex- 
ceptions. Against  this  rule  are  the  oft-quoted,  classical 
lines  which  Shakespeare  makes  Anthony  say  of  Julius 
Caesar, 

"The  evil  that  men  do,  lives  after  them. 

The  good  is  oft  interred  with  their  bones." 
We  need  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  great  Dramatist  puts 
these  words  into  the  mouth  of  a  schemer,  a  man  who  is 
playing  on  the  passions  of  the  crowd.  On  the  whole, 
the  opposite  of  Anthony's  words  is  true.  The  good  of 
a  man's  life  does  not  die;  and  certainly  it  is  only  for 
the  good  that  we  ever  bless  him. 

Great  men  there  have  been — admired,  yet  not  be- 
loved. Great  men  there  have  been — beloved,  yet  not 
admired.  Tonight  we  honor  the  memory  of  a  great 
man  who  was  admired  and  beloved — one  in  whom  there 
was  a  wonderful  blending  of  the  strong  and  the  gentle 
elements — the  virility  which  commands  esteem  and  the 
tenderness  that  evokes  affection — the  strength  we  ad- 
mire, and  the  simplicity  we  love. 

There  are  present  this  evening  those  far  more 
competent  than  I  to  estimate  his  ability  as  a  statesman, 
and  to  pass  judgment  upon  his  political  achievements 
and  his  policies.  As  to  these,  there  must  necessarily 
be  wide  differences  of  opinion.  About  these,  I  am  not 
greatly  concerned  tonight.  The  esteem  and  admira- 
tion of  those  who  followed  his  leadership — convinced 
that  the  principles  of  which  he  was  the  representative 
exponent,  were  the  truest  and  the  safest  for  the  nation 


91 

—were  no  more  deep  or  sincere  than  those  of  the  men 
who  followed  another  standard  under  the  conviction 
that  his  policies  were  mistaken  and  unsafe.  But  as  to 
William  McKinley,  the  man,  there  is  but  one  opin- 
ion on  the  part  of  those  whose  judgment  is  en- 
titled to  respect.  That  opinion  is  that  he  represented 
the  most  exalted  type  of  American  citizenship.  Apart 
from  his  political  career  and  achievements,  apart  from 
his  association  with  the  stirring  and  momentous  events 
that  made  his  administration  memorable,  whatever 
the  future  has  to  say  of  these  things,  this  is  certain, 
that  the  name  of  William  McKinley  shall  shine  in  his- 
tory as  it  does  today,  as  that  of  a  man  whose  personal 
character  was  above  reproach — who  in  all  the  relations 
of  life,  public  and  private,  discharged  his  duty  with  un- 
faltering fidelity  under  the  momentum  of  the  purest 
and  noblest  motives  that  can  animate  the  purpose  or 
determine  the  action  of  a  man ;  and  in  the  generations 
to  come,  his  memory  shall  be  an  incentive  to  every 
true-hearted  American  youth  to  seek  that  nobility— 
that  truest  and  realest  nobility — that  is  at  once  the 
root  and  the  fruit  of  earnest  faith,  strict  integrity  and 
honest  endeavor. 

He  was  a  patriot  of  the  most  high-minded — the 
pure  hearted  sort.  He  loved  his  country  with  a  love 
that  was  enlightened,  unselfish  and  sincere.  He  was  a 
politician  and  a  partisan,  yet  neither  in  any  small,  re- 
stricted or  unworthy  sense.  In  the  minds  of  small 
men,  politics  has  a  small  and  contemptible  meaning. 
With  such,  its  chief  significance  is  public  office  and  the 
emoluments  appertaining  thereunto.  With  such,  politi- 
cal life  means  a  scramble  for  political  spoils  at  what- 
ever cost  of  personal  integrity  and  honor.  With  such, 
politics  is  one  thing,  and  patriotism  is  another.  They 


92 

have  no  vital  relation.  The  principles  worth  fighting 
for  and  worth  struggling  for  are  the  principles  that 
will  carry  the  party  and  win  the  plunder.  No  such 
narrow,  selfish,  contemptible  conception  of  politics  or 
of  political  life  had  he  whose  memory  we  this  day 
honor  and  bless.  Politician  he  was,  but  who  can  say 
that  he  ever  prostituted  politics  into  a  means  of  per- 
sonal aggrandizement?  Political  offices  he  held  from 
that  of  County  Prosecuting  Attorney  to  that  of  the 
nation's  Chief  Executive;  but  who  has  ventured  to 
suggest  that  for  any  office  he  ever  held,  he  was  at  any 
moment  willing  to  compromise  principle,  or  make  his 
self-respect  and  conscience  articles  of  barter  and  ex- 
change? He  was  as  far  above  the  small  politicians  to 
whom  politics  and  spoils  are  synomyous  terms  as  the 
eagle  is  above  the  bat.  When  he  entered  public  life, 
he  took  his  conscience  with  him ;  and  on  that  sad  day 
when  he  fell  under  the  assassin's  bullet,  his  conscience 
was  as  clean  and  his  self-respect  as  unimpaired  as  on 
the  day  he  set  forth.  I  am  saying  now  what  has  been 
said  again  and  again  by  those  who  were  his  political 
opponents,  as  well  as  by  those  who  were  his  political 
friends  and  supporters.  His  whole  career  is,  on  the 
one  hand,  a  noble  object  lesson,  much  needed  by  those 
who  stand  aloof  from  politics  under  the  false  impres- 
sion that  to  be  interested  in  politics  is  to  suffer  personal 
contamination;  and  on  the  other  hand,  a  salutary  re- 
buke to  those  who  regard  political  life  as  furnishing  a 
suitable  opportunity  of  furthering  one's  own  selfish 
and  mercenary  interests.  William  McKinley  fought 
his  political  battles  under  the  impetus  of  the  same  pure 
patriotic  motives,  as  those  which  sent  him  out,  a  mere 
stripling,  to  fight  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 
With  him,  patriotism  and  politics  were  one  and  the 


93 

same.  Higher  than  all  considerations  of  personal  suc- 
cess— higher  than  any  party  in  his  esteem  was  the 
United  States  of  America.  He  followed  the  banner  of 
a  great  political  party,  because  that  party,  in  his  judg- 
ment, represented  principles  that  were  best  fitted  to 
advance  the  nation's  welfare.  And  the  great  need  oi: 
the  nation  today  is  men  of  this  type  and  breed;  men 
who  cherish  his  conceptions  of  the  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities of  citizenship ;  men  who  can  take  a  lively  in- 
terest in  political  affairs,  and  from  the  dust  and  heat 
of  political  conflict  come  forth  with  hands  clean  and 
conscience  unstained  as  his;  men  who  in  private  life 
and  public  office  command  the  esteem  that  belongs  to 
those  who  bear  a  character  above  reproach. 

Honor,  then,  to  him  "who,  though  dead,  yet 
speaketh"  of  a  patriotism  at  once  pure,  noble  and 
unselfish!  Gratitude  and  loving  remembrance  to  him 
whose  example  teaches  youth  and  age  alike,  that  devo- 
tion to  country  is  duty  to  God,  and  that  it  is  possible 
to  go  through  the  vicissitudes  of  a  long  public  career, 
and  close  that  career  with  a  name  untarnished  and  a 
personal  character  clean  as  the  wings  of  a  dove. 

As  the  census  taker  counts  men,  the  nation  has  men 
enough.  What  is  needed  is  not  more  men,  but  more 
man.  William  McKinley  was  the  right  sort  of  poli- 
tician because  primarily  he  was  the  right  sort  of  man. 
We  honor  his  memory  not  because  his  judgment  was 
inerrant,  not  because  he  was  incapable  of  making  mis- 
takes, but  because  his  motives  were  always  pure;  not 
because  we  always  had  confidence  in  his  opinions  and 
policies,  but  because  we  had  confidence  in  him.  We 
honor  him  because  he  stood  by  his  convictions,  and 
because  in  utterance  and  in  action,  he  honored  truth 
as  he  was  given  to  see  it.  We  honor  him  because  from 


94 

first  to  last  his  manhood  was  clean,  strong,  brave, 
resolute  and  self-reliant.  To  every  trust  he  was  un- 
faltering faithful.  In  the  invincible  consciousness  of 
personal  rectitude,  he  stood  ever  strong,  with  an  eye 
that  could  look  every  man  straight  in  the  face — with 
a  heart  that  scorned  the  brief-lived  triumph  won  by 
trickery  and  by  fraud — with  a  mind  that  labored  out 
convictions  consonant  with  justice  and  truth,  and  with 
a  will  to  carry  these  convictions  into  practical  oper- 
ation. 

"To  achieve  success  and  fame,  you  must  pursue  a 
special  line,"  said  President  Hayes.  "You  must  not 
make  a  speech  on  every  motion  offered  or  bill  intro- 
duced. Confine  yourself  to  one  particular  thing.  Be- 
come a  specialist.  Take  up  some  branch  of  legislation 
and  master  that.  Why  not  take  up  the  subject  of 
tariff?  That  being  a  subject  that  will  not  be  settled 
for  years  to  come,  it  offers  a  great  field  for  study  and 
a  chance  for  ultimate  fame."  With  these  words  of 
President  Hayes  ringing  in  his  ears,  William  McKinley 
began  studying  the  tariff,  and  in  time  became  one  of 
the  foremost  authorities  on  that  complex  subject;  and 
that  day  in  1890  on  which  the  McKinley  Tariff  Bill 
was  passed  in  the  House  of  Congress,  must  always 
stand  as  the  supreme  day  of  his  congressional  career. 
With  even  the  salient  features  of  that  famous  enact- 
ment, I  may  not  deal  just  now.  It  is  pertinent  only 
to  say  that  it  was  the  concrete  embodiment  and  expres- 
sion of  the  results  of  William  McKinley's  study  and 
observation  through  years.  It  represented  those  prin- 
ciples which,  in  his  judgment,  as  a  painstaking  and 
intelligent  student,  were  essential  to  the  nurture  and 
development  of  those  industries  upon  which  the  pros- 
perity of  the  Republic  must  be  securely  founded.  That 


95 

bill  was  reviled,  but  the  revilings  were  silenced  by  the 
hum  of  busy  machinery.  It  was  attacked  and  ridiculed 
by  political  opponents,  but  the  working  man  had  em- 
ployment and  his  dinner  pail  was  full.  The  people 
learned  the  true  value  of  that  Tariff  legislation,  when 
under  an  administration  adverse  to  it,  there  came  a 
period  of  industrial  paralysis  and  depression  that  fell 
with  special  severity  upon  the  great  body  of  toilers  of 
the  country.  Agriculture  languished  and  labor  suf- 
fered. Business  conditions  were  most  unpromising. 
Commercial  confidence  was  shaken.  The  credit  of  the 
government  and  the  integrity  of  its  currency  were 
threatened.  Then  the  people,  having  learned  the  value 
of  their  blessings  by  the  loss  of  them,  lifted  up  their 
voice,  and  William  McKinley  was  called  to  the  most 
honorable  and  responsible  position  within  the  gift  of 
any  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth — that  of  President 
of  the  United  States.  That  was  the  people's  thunder- 
ing "Amen"  to  the  principles  and  policies  embodied  in 
the  McKinley  Bill.  Then  and  there  set  in  a  tide  of  na- 
tional prosperity  such  as  this  country  had  never  known. 
Confidence  was  restored.  Business  settled  down  to  a 
normal,  stable  basis.  Capital  found  opportunity  for 
profitable  investment  in  such  enterprises  as  provided 
work,  and  labor  found  plenty  to  do  at  something  more 
than  a  mere  living  wage.  The  Inaugural  Address  of 
President  McKinley,  as  he  entered  upon  his  first  term, 
is  one  of  the  most  splendidly  fearless  and  patriotic 
utterances  ever  delivered  by  a  public  servant.  He 
realized  profoundly  the  responsibility  resting  upon 
him.  He  knew  how  severely  his  principles  and  policies 
were  to  be  put  to  the  test.  He  was  well  aware  of  the 
abuses  that  would  inevitably  spring  out  of  the  success 
of  these  economic  policies.  He  anticipated  the  very 


96 

conditions  which  confront  the  nation  today.  Sixteen 
years  after  their  utterance  these  ringing  words  of  his 
might  have  been  spoken  today:  "Immunity  should  be 
granted  to  none  who  violate  the  laws,  whether  indi- 
viduals, corporations  or  communities.  As  the  Consti- 
tution imposes  upon  the  President  the  duty  of  both  its 
own  execution  and  of  the  statutes  enacted  in  pursuance 
of  its  provisions,  I  shall  endeavor  to  carry  them  into 
effect.  The  declaration  of  the  party  now  restored  to 
power  has  been  in  the  past,  that  of  opposition  to  all 
combinations  of  capital  organized  in  trusts  or  other- 
wise, to  control  arbitrarily  the  conditions  of  trade 
among  our  citizens ;  and  it  has  supported  such  legisla- 
tion as  will  prevent  the  execution  of  all  schemes  to 
oppress  the  people  by  undue  charges  on  their  supplies, 
or  by  unjust  rates  for  the  transportation  of  their 
products  to  the  markets.  This  purpose  will  be  steadily 
pursued,  both  by  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  now  in 
existence,  and  the  recommendation  and  support  of 
such  new  laws  as  may  be  necessary  to  carry  it  into 
effect."  These  brave  and  honest  words  were  his  reply 
to  the  charge  of  his  adversaries  that  his  policies  con- 
templated the  advantage  of  the  few  rather  than  the 
many — the  classes  rather  than  the  masses.  They  were 
not  uttered  in  any  spirit  of  bravado.  Confident  as  he 
was  in  his  theories  of  tariff,  and  in  their  power,  when 
reduced  to  law,  to  restore  national  prosperity,  he  was 
determined  that  the  benefits  derived  therefrom  should 
be  shared  by  all  the  people,  and  they  were  shared  by 
all  the  people,  and  the  people  knew  that  a  high-minded 
patriot  occupied  the  Presidential  Chair,  guarding  their 
interests  and  legislating  for  their  weal ;  and  when  the 
time  arrived  once  more  for  them  to  lift  up  their 
voice,  there  was  another  thunderous  and  unequivocal 


97 

"Amen,"  to  the  wise  and  beneficient  achievements  of 
himself  and  his  administration. 

While  his  economic  policies  were  working  their 
wonders  in  the  restoration  of  commercial  confidence 
and  industrial  prosperity,  the  wisdom  and  statesman- 
ship of  William  McKinley  were  to  be  put  to  another 
test.  At  the  very  doors  of  the  American  Republic  lay 
an  island  whose  people  were  writhing  under  the  curse 
of  worse  than  mediaeval  tyranny  and  misrule.  The 
situation  in  Cuba  had  grown  intolerable.  It  became 
obvious  that  if  this  nation  would  retain  its  own  self- 
respect,  it  must  step  in  and  prevent  further  oppres- 
sion and  cruelty.  President  McKinley  addressed  him- 
self to  this  unwonted  duty.  It  is  a  long  story,  but  a 
story  most  honorable  to  him  of  whom  we  speak.  He 
realized  the  awful  horrors  of  war,  for  he  himself  had 
been  through  it.  He  was  loath  to  call  his  countrymen 
from  the  pursuits  of  peaceful  industry  to  engage  in 
the  clash  of  arms.  For  this  reluctance,  he  was  derided 
by  his  foes,  chided  even  by  his  friends.  He  possessed 
his  soul  in  patience,  and  "endured  as  seeing  Him  who 
is  invisible."  Only  when  every  pacific  means  failed  did 
he  put  the  bugle  to  his  lips  and  sound  the  appeal  to 
arms.  Then  followed  what  truly  has  been  termed  the 
"most  righteous  and  brilliantly  successful  foreign  war" 
that  any  country  had  ever  waged.  He  who  had  fought 
his  own  country's  battle — who  had  labored  so  zealously 
that  his  own  countrymen  might  enjoy  the  blessings 
of  industrial  and  commercial  prosperity,  now  became 
leader  in  a  campaign  whose  object  was  the  permanent 
relief  of  the  down-trodden  and  the  oppressed.  It  was 
a  war  in  behalf  of  humanity.  It  was  the  practical 
expression  of  that  axiom  of  Christian  ethics  as  it  ap- 
plies to  nations  as  well  as  to  individuals,  "Ye  then 


98 

who  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the 
weak."  It  was  a  war  in  behalf  of  enlightened  justice 
and  liberty,  as  against  mediaeval  tyranny  and  oppres- 
sion. Whenever  the  Almighty  has  had  need  of  some 
great  outstanding  character — some  leader — some  ruler 
or  champion  or  martyr,  He  has  never  yet  failed  to 
raise  up  just  the  man  to  fill  the  bill.  Every  epoch  of 
progress,  every  vital  movement  has  its  great  man. 
This  has  been  the  law  throughout  the  ages.  The  heat 
of  an  intense  crisis  seems  to  fuse  common  human  clay 
into  figures  almost  Godlike  for  the  world  to  marvel  at 
for  all  time.  It  was  in  the  Providence  of  God  that  in 
the  crisis  to  which  the  nation  had  come,  she  was 
represented  in  her  highest  seat  of  authority  by  a  man 
of  such  absolute  poise  and  sanity,  such  patience  and 
love  of  peace,  such  appreciation  of  common  justice  and 
humanity,  such  purity  of  principle  and  motive,  that, 
when  the  war  was  over,  and  Spanish  oppression  had 
been  driven  from  Cuba  and  from  the  far  off  islands 
of  the  Pacific  forever,  even  the  adversary  that  had 
been  crushed,  owned  the  magnanimity  and  humanity 
of  the  hand  that  had  dealt  the  blow.  The  true  states- 
man is  more  than  a  man  who  can  manipulate  social 
and  political  forces  to  the  advantage  of  the  nation. 
He  is  one  who  guides  the  currents  of  national  life 
into  the  channels  he  builds  out  of  institutions  and 
laws,  so  that  they  go  to  swell  the  volume  and  the  power 
of  the  world's  life.  He  is  endowed  with  the  genius  to 
see  how  the  forces  at  work  in  his  own  age  can  be  so 
directed  and  handled  as  to  advance  the  interest  of 
every  human  being.  He  is  the  man  who  can  discern 
the  things  which  are  essential — pre-eminent — abso- 
lutely needful  to  be  done,  and  then  bend  strong  en- 
ergies to  the  achievement  of  them ;  or,  to  use  Emer- 


99 

son's  words,  "with  strength  equal  to  the  time,  still 
wise  to  entertain  and  swift  to  execute  the  policy  which 
the  mind  and  heart  of  mankind  require."  He  of  whom 
we  speak  tonight  met  these  qualifications  in  a  signal 
manner.  He  was  a  statesman,  a  high-souled,  pure- 
hearted  patriot, 

"Who  never  sold  the  truth  to  save  the  hour, 
Nor  paltered  with  Eternal  God  for  power." 
William  McKinley  was  beloved  as  well  as  es- 
teemed— beloved  for  his  personal  qualities  as  well  as 
admired  for  those  statesmanly  qualities  which  fitted 
him  in  so  pre-eminent  a  degree  for  the  Presidential 
Chair.  Like  Abraham  Lincoln  in  this  respect,  he  was 
ever  in  close  touch  with  the  common  people.  He  never 
lost  his  head  nor  became  high  and  lifted  up.  He  knew 
what  it  was  to  pass  through  the  chilling  waters  of 
adversity.  He  experienced  stint  and  loss  and  hardship, 
and  these  but  brought  him  closer  to  the  heart  of  the 
great  toiling  and  suffering  masses.  There  is  nothing 
that  embitters  a  people  more  than  the  sense  that  those 
who  hold  the  reins  of  government,  do  not  know  what 
life  is  for  a  poor  man.  If  they  had  ever  done  a  week 
of  hard  physical  toil,  or  had  experienced  the  wearing 
anxiety  for  bread,  they  would  speak  in  another 
tone.  Government  everywhere  suffers  through  its 
lack  of  knowledge  of  what  life  means  to  the  mass 
of  the  governed.  Adversity  is  no  flatterer;  and 
whatever  a  man's  endowment,  it  requires  adversity 
to  make  him  feel  what  things  really  are.  "A 
prince  without  letters,"  says  old  Ben  Johnson,  "is 
a  pilot  without  eyes.  All  his  government  is  grop- 
ing." That  is  a  phrase  which  describes  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  legislation  of  both  political 
parties.  It  is  groping,  and  one  principal  want  is  knowl- 


100 

edge ;  and  not  least  of  all,  knowledge  of  what  life  is  for 
the  hard-driven  and  the  poor.  William  McKinley  was 
no  self-constituted  model  of  humility.  He  was  no 
boastful  champion  of  the  poor  man's  cause,  yet  the 
toilers  of  the  nation  knew  that  he  was  their  brother ; 
and  even  when  elevated  to  the  highest  and  most  honor- 
able position  in  the  land,  they  knew  and  felt  how  every 
word  and  deed — his  whole  public  and  private  deport- 
ment, asserted  his  community  of  interest  with  them 
rather  than  his  separateness  from  them ;  and  the  peo- 
ple— the  common  people,  believed  in  him  and  loved 
him. 

He  was  a  Christian  man  of  the  noblest  type.  I  do 
not  mention  this  as  though  it  were  incidental  or  sec- 
ondary. His  religion  influenced  and  dominated  his 
whole  life.  It  was  not  a  matter  of  dogma  or  of  ritual. 
It  was  a  matter  of  life — every  day  Life.  He  was  a 
Church  member  not  because  that  was  a  respectable 
thing  to  be,  but  because  he  esteemed  it  a  privilege  to  be 
identified  with  an  institution  that  represented  Chris- 
tianity in  an  organic  form,  and  because  he  believed  it 
the  duty  of  every  Christian  man  to  avow  his  principles 
and  show  his  colors.  He  was  no  more  ashamed  of  his 
religion  than  he  was  of  his  politics.  He  never  found 
his  religion  irksome  or  inconvenient.  His  home  in 
Canton  or  in  Washington  was  a  Christian  home. 
Towards  his  invalid  wife,  his  attitude  and  deportment 
was  that  of  a  chivalrous  knight.  Wherever  he  was — 
in  the  quiet  seclusion  of  his  own  home — among  fa- 
miliar acquaintances  and  neighbors,  or  among  the 
statesmen — senators — secretaries  and  ambassadors  of 
the  national  capital,  he  was  ever  the  same  true-hearted, 
honest,  upright  Christian  gentleman. 


101 

How  pathetic,  beautiful — ay,  how  deeply  signif- 
icant, the  last  hours  of  that  noble  career.  It  has  be- 
come to  us  a  familiar  picture ;  the  man  who  had  known 
all  the  joys,  all  the  honors  that  could  be  given  any 
man  to  know;  the  man  whose  hand  had  held  the  helm 
of  this  great  republic,  and  whose  wisdom  had  guided 
her  course  through  a  time  of  grave  crisis ;  that  man  in 
whom  centered  so  much  of  human  love  and  admiration, 
now  in  his  last  hours  of  consciousness  feebly  chanting 
the  old  hymn  that  he  had  loved  from  childhood — 
through  youth  and  through  manhood — 

"Nearer  my  God  to  Thee,  nearer  to  Thee, 

E'en  tho'  it  be  a  cross  that  raiseth  me. 

Still  all  my  song  shall  be 

Nearer  my  God  to  Thee,  nearer  to  Thee." 
and  then  breathing  forth  that  prayer  of  all  prayers — 
that  prayer  of  all  the  ages,  "Our  Father  which  art  in 
Heaven."  No  anxiety  concerning  himself  in  these  last 
trying  hours.  His  solicitude  was  only  for  others  and 
especially  for  the  tender  woman  who  for  so  many 
years  had  been  nearest  and  dearest  to  him,  and  for 
whom  he  had  cared  with  such  unceasing  and  chivalrous 
devotion.  As  he  lived,  so  he  died — the  great  man — 
the  brave,  honest  man ;  patriot,  statesman,  Christian. 

There  is  nothing  the  nation  needs  more  than  men 
of  the  stamp  and  quality  of  him  of  whom  we  speak. 
The  nation  is  .safe  just  so  long  as  true  manhood  is 
placed  above  everything  else.  Integrity — honor — jus- 
tice and  the  fear  of  God,  these  are  the  foundation 
stones  upon  which  we  must  build  if  we  would  build  se- 
curely. Beware  of  the  leader  who,  with  genius,  talent, 
and  eloquence,  is  lacking  in  those  deeper  personal  qual- 
ities which  alone  can  make  it  safe  to  follow  him.  The 
need  of  the  hour  is  not  genius  but  manhood.  Not  men  of 


102 

great  talent  but  men  of  unquestionable  integrity  and 
irreproachable  moral  character.  This  is  a  great  time 
in  which  to  live,  and  every  man  of  thought  is  bound, 
with  wholesome  courage  to  recognize  its  greatness. 
And  just  because  it  is  a  time  of  greatness  it  is  a 
time  of  peril.  The  peril  of  the  age  is  materialism. 
The  materialism  of  pleasure  by  which  he  who  is  cap- 
tured by  it,  is  made  soft — effeminate — feebly  self-in- 
dulgent. The  materialism  of  business,  destroying  the 
symmetry  of  manhood  by  the  abnormal  growth  of  the 
commercial  instinct — making  a  man  to  grow  in  adverse 
ratio  to  his  success.  The  materialism  of  unbelief,  rob- 
bing life  of  its  potential  heroism  by  destroying  faith  in 
the  spiritual  and  the  unseen — putting  out  the  lamp  and 
the  altar  fires  within  the  sanctuary,  and  building  up 
with  dead  masonry — eastward  and  westward — the  win- 
dows through  which  our  fathers  looked  out  upon  the 
face  of  God.  There  is  nothing  on  earth  that  so  di- 
minishes the  size  of  character  as  the  renunciation  of 
faith's  eternal  and  infinite  aspirations.  To  resist  these 
temptations  and  to  stand  forth  as  true  men — honoring 
manhood  above  all  gains  or  glories — above  all  adven- 
titious or  accidental  circumstances  whatsoever,  is  the 
one  supreme  demand  of  the  age;  and  this  is  the  one 
supreme,  cogent  lesson  that  comes  to  us  from  the  ca- 
reer of  that  great  and  splendid  American  whose  mem- 
ory we  honor.  Over  the  door  of  every  profession — of 
every  occupation,  there  is  this  standing  advertise- 
ment, "Wanted,  men  with  conscience." 

"Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill, 
Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy, 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will, 
Men  who  have  honor,  men  who  will  not  lie. 


103 

Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demagogue 

And  scorn  his  treacherous  flatteries,  without  winking. 

Tall  men,  sun-crowned  who  live  above  the  fog, 

In  public  duty  and  in  private  thinking." 

It  was  because  William  McKinley  answered  that 
description  that  tonight  we  honor  ourselves  by  honor- 
ing his  memory.  It  is  because  he  was  such  a  man  that 
we  bless  God  for  the  inspiration  of  which  we  are  con- 
scious as  we  look  back  upon  his  life  and  recall  his  noble 
career ;  and  because  he  was  such  a  man,  we  are  assured 
that  he  "though  dead,  yet  speaketh."  In  all  he  was — 
in  all  he  did — in  all  he  put  into  the  life  of  the  nation 
he  loved  so  truly  and  served  so  faithfully — in  every 
conscious  inspiration  caught  by  us  today  from  that 
complete  and  noble  career,  he  lives  and  will  ever  live. 
His  influence  will  still  be  felt  here  among  us  by  every 
man  who  loves  his  country  and  strives  for  a  more  per- 
fect realization  of  all  that  is  true  and  pure  here  on 
earth. 

"Such  was  he.    His  work  is  done. 
But  while  the  races  of  mankind  endure, 
Colossal — seen  of  every  land, 
And  keep  the  soldier  firm,  the  statesman  pure ; 
Let  his  great  example  stand — 
Till  in  all  land  and  through  all  human  story, 
The  path  of  duty  be  the  path  to  glory." 


TIPPECANOE  CLUB 

Passing  the  Reviewing  Stand  at  the  Dedication  of  the 
McKinley  Monument,  Canton,  Ohio 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESS  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHAR- 
ACTER OF  WILLIAM  McKINLEY 

HON.  JOHN  HAY 

This  panegyric  was  delivered  before  the  two  Houses 
of  Congress  February  27th,  1902,  in  the  Hall  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  in  the  National  Capitol. 
The  President  of  the  United  States  and  his  Cabinet, 
His  Royal  Highness,  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  mem- 
bers of  the  diplomatic  corps,  Justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  governors  of  states  and  other  distinguished 
guests  were  present. 

William  P.  Frye,  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Sen- 
ate, introduced  the  speaker. 

+       +       + 

Once  more,  and  for  the  third  time,  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  are  assembled  to  commemorate 
the  life  and  death  of  a  President  slain  by  the  hand 
of  an  assassin.  The  attention  of  the  future  historian 
will  be  attracted  to  the  features  which  re-appear  with 
startling  sameness  in  all  three  of  these  awful  crimes : 
the  uselessness,  the  utter  lack  of  consequence  of  the 
act ;  the  obscurity,  the  insignificance  of  the  criminal ; 
the  blamelessness — so  far  as  in  our  sphere  of  existence 
the  best  of  men  may  be  held  blameless — of  the  victim. 
Not  one  of  our  murdered  Presidents  should  have  had 
an  enemy  in  the  world;  they  were  all  of  such  pre- 
eminent purity  of  life  that  no  pretext  could  be  given 
for  the  attack  of  passional  crime ;  they  were  all  men  of 
democratic  instincts  who  could  never  have  offended 
the  most  jealous  advocates  of  equality;  they  were  of 
kindly  and  generous  nature,  to  whom  wrong  or  in- 
justice was  impossible;  of  moderate  fortune,  whose 
slender  means  nobody  could  envy.  They  were  men  of 
austere  virtue,  of  tender  heart,  of  eminent  abilities, 

107 


108 

which  they  had  devoted  with  single  minds  to  the  good 
of  the  Republic.  If  ever  men  walked  before  God  and 
man  without  blame,  it  was  these  three  rulers  of  our 
people.  The  only  temptation  to  attack  their  lives  of- 
fered was  their  gentle  radiance;  to  eyes  hating  the 
light  that  was  offense  enough. 

The  stupid  uselessness  of  such  an  infamy  af- 
fronts the  common  sense  of  the  world.  One  can  con- 
ceive how  the  death  of  a  dictator  may  change  the  po- 
litical conditions  of  an  empire;  how  the  extinction  of 
a  narrowing  line  of  kings  may  bring  in  an  alien  dy- 
nasty. But  in  a  well-ordered  Republic  like  ours,  the 
ruler  may  fall,  but  the  state  feels  no  tremor.  Our 
beloved  and  revered  leader  is  gone;  but  the  natural 
process  of  our  laws  provides  us  a  successor,  identical 
in  purpose  and  ideals,  nourished  by  the  same  teach- 
ings, inspired  by  the  same  principles,  pledged  by 
tender  affection  as  well  as  by  high  loyalty  to  carry  to 
completion  the  immense  task  committed  to  his  hands, 
and  to  smite  with  iron  severity  every  manifestation  of 
that  hideous  crime  which  his  mild  predecessor,  with 
his  dying  breath,  forgave.  The  sayings  of  celestial 
wisdom  have  no  date;  the  words  that  reach  us,  over 
two  thousand  years,  out  of  the  darkest  hour  of  gloom 
the  world  has  ever  known,  are  true  to  the  life  to-day : 
"They  know  not  what  they  do."  The  blow  struck  at 
our  dear  friend  and  ruler  was  as  deadly  as  blind  hate 
could  make  it;  but  the  blow  struck  at  anarchy  was 
deadlier  still. 

What  a  world  of  insoluble  problems  such  an  event 
excites  in  the  mind!  Not  merely  in  its  personal,  but 
in  its  public  aspects,  it  presents  a  paradox  not  to  be 
comprehended.  Under  a  system  of  government  so 
free  and  so  impartial  that  we  recognize  its  existence 


109 

only  by  its  benefactions ;  under  a  social  order  so  pure- 
ly democratic  that  classes  can  not  exist  in  it,  affording 
opportunities  so  universal  that  even  conditions  are  as 
changing  as  the  winds,  where  the  laborer  of  to-day 
is  the  capitalist  of  to-morrow;  under  laws  which  are 
the  result  of  ages  of  evolution,  so  uniform  and  so 
beneficent  that  the  President  has  just  the  same  rights 
and  privileges  as  the  artisan,  we  see  the  same  hellish 
growth  of  hatred  and  murder  which  dogs  equally  the 
footsteps  of  benevolent  monarchs  and  blood-stained 
despots. 

How  many  centuries  can  join  with  us  in  the  com- 
munity of  a  kindred  sorrow !  I  will  not  speak  of  those 
distant  regions  where  assassination  enters  into  the 
daily  life  of  government.  But  among  the  nations 
bound  to  us  by  the  ties  of  familiar  intercourse — who 
can  forget  that  wise  and  high-minded  autocrat  who 
had  earned  the  proud  title  of  the  Liberator,  that  en- 
lightened and  magnanimous  citizen  whom  France 
still  mourns,  that  brave  and  chivalrous  King  of  Italy 
who  only  lived  for  his  people,  and,  saddest  of  all,  that 
lovely  and  sorrowing  Empress  whose  harmless  life 
could  hardly  have  excited  the  animosity  of  a  demon? 
Against  that  devilish  spirit  nothing  avails — neither 
virtue,  nor  patriotism,  nor  age  nor  youth,  nor  con- 
science nor  pity.  We  can  not  even  say  that  education 
is  a  sufficient  safeguard  against  this  baleful  evil,  for 
most  of  the  wretches  whose  crimes  have  so  shocked 
humanity  in  recent  years  are  men  not  unlettered,  who 
have  gone  from  the  common  schools,  through  murder, 
to  the  scaffold. 

Our  minds  can  not  discern  the  origin  nor  conceive 
the  extent  of  wickedness  so  perverse  and  so  cruel ;  but 


110 

this  does  not  exempt  us  from  the  duty  of  trying  to 
control  and  counteract  it.  We  do  not  understand  what 
electricity  is ;  whence  it  comes  or  what  its  hidden  prop- 
erties may  be.  But  we  know  it  as  a  mighty  force  for 
good  or  evil — and  so  with  the  painful  toil  of  years, 
men  of  learning  and  skill  have  labored  to  store  and  to 
subjugate  it,  to  neutralize  and  even  to  employ  its  de- 
structive energies.  This  problem  of  anarchy  is  dark 
and  intricate,  but  it  ought  to  be  within  the  compass  of 
democratic  government — although  no  sane  mind  can 
fathom  the  mysteries  of  these  untracked  and  orbitless 
natures — to  guard  against  their  aberrations,  to  take 
away  from  them  the  hope  of  escape,  the  long  luxury 
of  scandalous  days  in  court,  the  unwholesome  sympathy 
of  hysterical  degenerates,  and  so  by  degrees  to  make 
the  crime  not  worth  committing,  even  to  these  abnor- 
mal and  distorted  souls. 

It  would  be  presumptuious  for  me  in  this  presence 
to  suggest  the  details  of  remedial  legislation  for  a 
malady  so  malignant.  That  task  may  safely  be  left 
to  the  skill  and  patience  of  the  national  Congress, 
which  have  never  been  found  unequal  to  any  such 
emergency.  The  country  believes  that  the  memory  of 
three  murdered  comrades  of  yours,  all  of  whose  voices 
still  haunt  these  walls,  will  be  a  sufficient  inspiration  to 
enable  you  to  solve  even  this  abstruse  and  painful 
problem,  which  has  dimmed  so  many  pages  of  history 
with  blood  and  with  tears. 

Before  an  audience  less  sympathetic  than  this,  I 
should  not  dare  to  speak  of  that  great  career  which  we 
have  met  to  commemorate.  But  we  are  all  his  friends, 
and  friends  do  not  criticise  each  other's  words  about 
an  open  grave.  I  thank  you  for  the  honor  you  have 
done  me  in  inviting  me  here,  and  not  less  for  the  kind 


Ill 

forbearance  I   know  I   shall  have  from  you   in  my 
most  inadequate  efforts  to  speak  of  him  worthily. 

The  life  of  William  McKinley  was,  from  his  birth 
to  his  death,  typically  American.  There  is  no  environ- 
ment, I  should  say,  anywhere  else  in  the  world  which 
could  produce  just  such  a  character.  He  was  born  into 
that  way  of  life  which  elsewhere  is  called  the  middle 
class,  but  which  in  this  country  is  so  nearly  universal 
as  to  make  of  other  classes  an  almost  negligible  quan- 
tity. He  was  neither  rich  nor  poor,  neither  proud  nor 
humble;  he  knew  no  hunger  he  was  not  sure  of  satis- 
fying, no  luxury  which  could  enervate  mind  or  body. 
His  parents  were  sober,  God-fearing  people;  intelli- 
gent and  upright;  without  pretension  and  without 
humility.  He  grew  up  in  the  company  of  boys  like 
himself — wholesome,  honest,  self-respecting. 

They  looked  down  on  nobody;  they  never  felt  it 
possible  they  could  be  looked  down  upon.  Their 
houses  were  the  homes  of  probity,  piety,  patriotism. 
They  learned  in  the  admirable  school  readers  of  fifty 
years  ago  the  lessons  of  heroic  and  splendid  life  which 
have  come  down  from  the  past.  They  read  in  their 
weekly  newspapers  the  story  of  the  world's  progress, 
in  which  they  were  eager  to  take  part,  and  of  the  sins 
and  wrongs  of  civilization,  with  which  they  burned 
to  do  battle.  It  was  a  serious  and  thoughtful  time. 
The  boys  of  that  day  felt  dimly,  but  deeply,  that  days 
of  sharp  struggle  and  high  achievements  were  before 
them.  They  looked  at  life  with  the  wondering  yet 
resolute  eyes  of  a  young  esquire  in  his  vigil  of  arms. 
They  felt  a  time  was  coming  when  to  them  should  be 
addressed  the  stern  admonition  of  the  Apostle :  "Quit 
you  like  men ;  be  strong." 


112 

It  is  not  easy  to  give  to  those  of  a  later  genera- 
tion any  clear  idea  of  that  extraordinary  spiritual 
awakening  which  passed  over  the  country  at  the  first 
red  signal  fires  of  the  civil  war.    It  was  not  our  earli- 
est apocalypse ;  a  hundred  years  before  the  Nation  had 
been  revealed  to  itself,  when  after  long  discussion  and 
much  searching  of  heart  the  people  of  the  colonies  had 
resolved  that  to  live  without  liberty  was  worse  than 
to  die,  and  had  therefore  wagered  in  the  solemn  game 
of  war  "their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred 
honor."    In  a  stress  of  heat  and  labor  unutterable,  the 
country  had  been  hammered  and  welded  together ;  but 
thereafter  for  nearly  a  century  there  had  been  nothing 
in  our  life  to  touch  the  innermost  fountain  of  feeling 
and  devotion.     We  had  had  rumors  of  wars — even 
wars  we  had  had,  not  without  sacrifices  and  glory — 
but  nothing  which  went  to  the  vital  self-consciousness 
of  the  country,  nothing  which  challenged  the  Nation's 
right  to  live.    But  in  1860  the  Nation  was  going  down 
into  the  Valley  of  Decision.    The  question  which  had 
been  debated  on  thousands  of  platforms,  which  had 
been     discussed    in    countless     publications,     which, 
thundered  from  innumerable  pulpits,  had  caused  in 
their  congregations  the  bitter  strife  and  dissension  to 
which   only  cases  of  conscience  can  give   rise,   was 
everywhere  pressing  for  solution.    And  not  merely  in 
the  various,  channels  of  publicity  was  it  alive  and 
clamorous.     About  every  fireside  in  the  land,  in  the 
conversation  of  friends  and  neighbors,  and,   deeper 
still,  in  the  secret  of  millions  of  human  hearts,  the 
battle  of  opinion  was  waging;  and  all  men  felt  and 
saw — with  more  or  less  clearness — that  an  answer  to 
the  importunate  question,  Shall  the  Nation  Live?  was 


113 

due,  and  not  to  be  denied.  And  I  do  not  mean  that  in 
the  North  alone  there  was  this  austere  wrestling  with 
conscience.  In  the  South  as  well,  below  all  the  effer- 
vescence and  excitement  of  a  people  perhaps  more 
given  to  eloquent  speech  than  we  were,  there  was  the 
profound  agony  of  question  and  answer,  the  sum- 
mons to  decide  whether  honor  and  freedom  did  not  call 
them  to  revolution  and  war.  It  is  easy  for  partisan- 
ship to  say  that  the  one  side  was  right  and  that  the 
other  was  wrong.  It  is  still  easier  for  an  indolent  mag- 
nanimity to  say  that  both  were  right.  Perhaps  in 
the  wide  view  of  ethics  one  is  always  right  to  follow 
his  conscience,  though  it  lead  him  to  disaster  and 
death.  But  history  is  inexorable.  She  takes  no  ac- 
count of  sentiment  and  intention ;  and  in  her  cold  and 
luminous  eyes  that  side  is  right  which  fights  in  har- 
mony with  the  stars  in  their  courses.  The  men  are 
right  through  whose  efforts  and  struggles  the  world 
is  helped  onward,  and  humanity  moves  to  a  higher  level 
and  a  brighter  day. 

The  men  who  are  living  to-day  and  who  were 
young  in  1860  will  never  forget  the  glory  and  glamour 
that  filled  the  earth  and  the  sky  "when  the  long  twilight 
of  doubt  and  uncertainty  was  ending  and  the  time  of 
action  had  come.  A  speech  by  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
an  event  not  only  of  high  moral  significance,  but  of 
far-reaching  importance;  the  drilling  of  a  militia 
company  by  Ellsworth  attracted  national  attention; 
the  fluttering  of  the  flag  in  the  clear  sky  drew  tears 
from  the  eyes  of  young  men. 

Patriotism,  which  had  been  a  rhetorical  expres- 
sion, became  a  passionate  emotion,  in  which  instinct, 
logic,  and  feeling  were  fused.  The  country  was  worth 
saving ;  it  could  be  saved  only  by  fire ;  no  sacrifice  was 


114 

too  great;  the  young  men  of  the  country  were  ready 
for  the  sacrifice;  come  weal,  come  woe,  they  were 
ready. 

At  seventeen  years  of  age  William  McKinley  heard 
this  summons  of  his  country.  He  was  the  sort  of 
youth  to  whom  a  military  life  in  ordinary  times  would 
possess  no  attractions.  His  nature  was  far  different 
from  that  of  the  ordinary  soldier.  He  had  other  dreams 
of  life,  its  prizes  and  pleasures,  than  that  of  marches 
and  battles.  But  to  his  mind  there  was  no  choice  or 
question.  The  banner  floating  in  the  morning  breeze 
was  the  beckoning  gesture  of  his  country.  The  thrill- 
ing notes  of  the  trumpet  called  him — him  and  none 
other — into  the  ranks.  His  portrait  in  his  first  uni- 
form is  familiar  to  you  all — the  short  stocky  figure ;  the 
quiet,  thoughtful  face;  the  deep,  dark  eyes.  It  is  the 
face  of  the  lad  who  could  not  stay  at  home  when  he 
thought  he  was  needed  in  the  field.  He  was  of  the 
stuff  of  which  good  soldiers  are  made.  Had  he  been 
ten  years  older  he  would  have  entered  at  the  head  of 
a  company  and  come  out  at  the  head  of  a  division.  But 
he  did  what  he  could.  He  enlisted  as  a  private;  he 
learned  to  obey.  His  serious,  sensible  ways,  his 
prompt,  alert  efficiency  soon  attracted  the  attention 
of  his  superiors.  He  was  so  faithful  in  little  things 
they  gave  him  more  and  more  to  do.  He  was  untiring 
in  camp  and  on  the  march ;  swift,  cool,  and  fearless  in 
fight.  He  left  the  Army  with  field  rank  when  the  war 
ended,  brevetted  by  President  Lincoln  for  gallantry  in 
battle. 

In  coming  years  when  men  seek  to  draw  the  moral 
of  our  great  Civil  War  nothing  will  seem  to  them  so 
admirable  in  all  the  history  of  our  two  magnificent 
armies  as  the  way  in  which  the  war  came  to  a  close. 


115 

When  the  Confederate  army  saw  the  time  had  come, 
they   acknowledged   the   pitiless   logic   of   facts,    and 
ceased  fighting.    When  the  army  of  the  Union  saw  it 
was  no  longer  needed,  without  a  murmur  or  question, 
making  no  terms,  asking  no  return,  in  the  flush  of 
victory  and  fullness  of  might,  it  laid  down  its  arms 
and  melted  back  into  the  mass  of  peaceful  citizens. 
There  is  no  event,  since  the  Nation  was  born,  which 
has  so  proved  its  solid  capacity  for  self-government. 
Both  sections  share  equally  in  that  crown  of  glory. 
They  had  held  a  debate  of  incomparable  importance 
and  had  fought  it  out  with  equal  energy.     A  conclu- 
sion had  been  reached — and  it  is  to  the  everlasting 
honor  of  both  sides  that  they  each  knew  when  the  war 
was  over,  and  the  hour  of  a  lasting  peace  had  struck. 
We  may  admire  the  desperate  daring  of  others  who 
prefer  annihilation  to  compromise,  but  the  palm  of 
common  sense,  and,  I  will  say,  of  enlightened  patriot- 
ism, belongs  to  the  men  like  Grant  and  Lee,  who  knew 
when  they  had  fought  enough,  for  honor  and  for  coun- 
try- 
William   McKinley,   one  of  that  sensible  million 
of  men,  gladly  laid  down  his  sword  and  betook  him- 
self to  his  books.     He  quickly  made  up  the  time  lost 
in  soldiering.    He  attacked  his  Blackstone  as  he  would 
have  done  a  hostile  intrenchment ;  finding  the  range 
of  a  country  law  library  too  narrow,  he  went  to  the 
Albany  Law  School,   where  he  worked  energetically 
with  brilliant  success;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and 
settled    down    to    practice — a    brevetted    veteran    of 
twenty-four — in  the  quiet  town  of  Canton,  now  and 
henceforward  forever  famous  as  the  scene  of  his  life 
and    his    place   of   sepulture.      Here   many   blessings 


116 

awaited  him :  high  repute,  professional  success,  and  a 
domestic  affection  so  pure,  so  devoted  and  stainless 
that  future  poets,  seeking  an  ideal  of  Christian  mar- 
riage, will  find  in  it  a  theme  worthy  of  their  songs. 
This  is  a  subject  to  which  the  lightest  allusion  seems 
profanation ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  speak  of  William 
McKinley  without  remembering  that  no  truer,  ten- 
derer knight  to  his  chosen  lady  ever  lived  among  mor- 
tal men. 

If  to  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect  is  per- 
mitted the  consciousness  of  earthly  things,  we  may  be 
sure  that  his  faithful  soul  is  now  watching  over  that 
gentle  sufferer  who  counts  the  long  hours  in  their 
shattered  home  in  the  desolate  splendor  of  his  fame. 

A  man  possessing  the  qualities  with  which  nature 
has  endowed  McKinley  seeks  political  activity  as  nat- 
urally as  a  growing  plant  seeks  light  and  air.  A 
wholesome  ambition;  a  rare  power  of  making  friends 
and  keeping  them;  a  faith,  which  may  be  called  re- 
ligious, in  his  country  and  its  institutions ;  and,  flowing 
from  this,  a  belief  that  a  man  could  do  no  nobler  work 
than  to  serve  such  a  country — these  were  the  elements 
in  his  character  that  drew  him  irresistibly  into  public 
life.  He  had  from  the  beginning  a  remarkable  equip- 
ment, a  manner  of  singular  grace  and  charm,  a  voice 
of  ringing  quality  and  great  carrying  power — vast  as 
were  the  crowds  that  gathered  about  him,  he  reached 
their  utmost  fringe  without  apparent  effort.  He  had 
an  extraordinary  power  of  marshaling  and  presenting 
significant  facts,  so  as  to  bring  conviction  to  the  aver- 
age mind.  His  range  of  reading  was  not  wide;  he 
read  only  what  he  might  some  day  find  useful,  and 
what  he  read  his  memory  held  like  brass.  Those  who 
knew  him  well  in  those  early  days  can  never  forget  the 


117 

consummate  skill  and  power  with  which  he  would 
select  a  few  pointed  facts,  and  blow  upon  blow,  would 
hammer  them  into  the  attention  of  great  assemblages 
in  Ohio,  as  Jael  drove  the  nail  into  the  head  of  the 
Canaanite  captain.  He  was  not  often  impassioned ;  he 
rarely  resorted  to  the  aid  of  wit  or  humor ;  yet  I  never 
saw  his  equal  in  controlling  and  convincing  a  popular 
audience  by  sheer  appeal  to  their  reason  and  intelli- 
gence. He  did  not  flatter  or  cajole  them,  but  there 
was  an  implied  compliment  in  the  serious  and  sober 
tone  in  which  he  addressed  them.  He  seemed  one  of 
them ;  in  heart  and  feeling  he  was  one  of  them.  Each 
workingman  in  a  great  crowd  might  say :  "That  is  the 
sort  of  man  I  would  like  to  be,  and  under  more  favor- 
ing circumstances  might  have  been."  He  had  the  di- 
vine gift  of  sympathy,  which,  though  given  only  to 
the  elect,  makes  all  men  their  friends. 

So  it  came  naturally  about  that  in  1876 — the  be- 
ginning of  the  second  century  of  the  Republic — he 
began,  by  an  election  to  Congress,  his  political 
career.  Thereafter  for  fourteen  years  this  Cham- 
ber was  his  home.  I  use  the  word  advisedly.  No- 
where in  the  world  was  he  so  in  harmony  with 
his  environment  as  here;  nowhere  else  did  his  mind 
work  with  such  full  consciousness  of  its  powers. 
The  air  of  debate  was  native  to  him;  here  he  drank 
delight  of  battle  with  his  peers.  In  after  days, 
when  he  drove  by  this  stately  pile,  or  when  on  rare 
occasions  his  duty  called  him  here,  he  greeted  his 
old  haunts  with  the  affectionate  zest  of  a  child  of  the 
house;  during  all  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life,  filled 
as  they  were  with  activity  and  glory,  he  never  ceased 
to  be  homesick  for  this  Hall.  When  he  came  to  the 
Presidency  there  was  not  a  day  when  his  Congres- 


118 

sional  service  was  not  of  use  to  him.  Probably  no 
other  President  has  been  in  such  full  and  cordial  com- 
munion with  Congress,  if  we  may  except  Lincoln  alone. 
McKinley  knew  the  legislative  body  thoroughly — its 
composition,  its  methods,  its  habits  of  thought.  He 
had  the  profoundest  respect  for  its  authority  and  an 
inflexible  belief  in  the  ultimate  rectitude  of  its  judg- 
ments. Our  history  shows  how  surely  an  Executive 
courts  disaster  and  ruin  by  assuming  an  attitude  of 
hostility  or  distrust  to  the  Legislature;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  McKinley's  frank  and  sincere  trust  and 
confidence  in  Congress  were  repaid  by  prompt  and 
loyal  support  and  co-operation.  During  his  entire 
term  of  office  this  mutual  trust  and  regard — so  essen- 
tial to  the  public  welfare — was  never  shadowed  by  a 
single  cloud. 

He  was  a  Republican.  He  could  not  be  anything 
else.  A  Union  soldier  grafted  upon  a  Clay  Whig,  he 
necessarily  believed  in  the  "American  system" — in 
protection  to  home  industries;  in  a  strong,  aggressive 
nationality;  in  a  liberal  construction  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. What  any  self-reliant  nation  might  rightly  do, 
he  felt  this  Nation  had  power  to  do,  if  required  by  the 
common  welfare  and  not  prohibited  by  our  written 
charter. 

Following  the  natural  bent  of  his  mind,  he  de- 
voted himself  to  questions  of  finance  and  revenue,  to 
the  essentials  of  the  national  housekeeping.  He  took 
high  rank  in  the  House  from  the  beginning.  His 
readiness  in  debate,  his  mastery  of  every  subject  he 
handled,  the  bright  and  amiable  light  he  shed  about 
him,  and  above  all  the  unfailing  courtesy  and  good  • 
will  with  which  he  treated  friend  and  foe  alike — one 
of  the  surest  signatures  of  a  nature  born  to  great 


119 

destinies — made  his  service  in  the  House  a  pathway 
of  unbroken  success  and  brought  him  at  last  to  the 
all-important  post  of  chairman  of  Ways  and  Means 
and  leader  of  the  majority.  Of  the  famous  revenue 
act  which,  in  that  capacity,  he  framed  and  carried 
through  Congress,  it  is  not  my  purpose  here  and  now 
to  speak.  The  embers  of  the  controversy  in  the  midst 
of  which  that  law  had  its  troubled  being  are  yet  too 
warm  to  be  handled  on  a  day  like  this.  I  may  only  say 
that  it  was  never  sufficiently  tested  to  prove  the  praises 
of  its  friends  or  the  criticism  of  its  opponents.  After 
a  brief  existence  it  passed  away,  for  a  time,  in  the 
storm  that  swept  the  Republicans  out  of  power.  Mc- 
Kinley  also  passed  through  a  brief  zone  of  shadow,  his 
Congressional  district  having  been  rearranged  for 
that  purpose  by  a  hostile  legislature. 

Someone  has  said  it  is  easy  to  love  our  enemies; 
they  help  us  so  much  more  than  our  friends.  The  peo- 
ple whose  malevolent  skill  had  turned  McKinley  out  of 
Congress  deserved  well  of  him  and  of  the  Republic. 
Never  was  Nemesis  more  swift  and  energetic.  The 
Republicans  of  Ohio  were  saved  the  trouble  of  choos- 
ing a  governor — the  other  side  had  chosen  one  for 
them.  A  year  after  McKinley  left  Congress  he  was 
made  governor  of  Ohio,  and  two  years  later  he  was 
re-elected,  each  time  by  majorities  unhoped  for  and 
overwhelming.  He  came  to  fill  a  space  in  the  public 
eye  which  obscured  a  great  portion  of  the  field  of 
vision.  In  two  national  conventions  the  Presidency 
seemed  within  his  reach.  But  he  had  gone  there  in  the 
interest  of  others  and  his  honor  forbade  any  dalliance 
with  temptation.  So  his  nay  was  nay — delivered  with 
a  tone  and  gesture  there  was  no  denying.  His  hour 
was  not  yet  come. 


120 

There  was,  however,  no  long  delay.     He  became, 
from  year  to  year,  the  most  prominent  politician  and 
orator  in  the  country.     Passionately  devoted  to  the 
principles  of  his  party,  he  was  always  ready  to  do 
anything,  to  go  anywhere,  to  proclaim  its  ideas  and 
to  support  its  candidates.    His  face  and  his  voice  be- 
came familiar  to  millions  of  our  people ;  and  wherever 
they  were  seen  and  heard,  men  became  his  partisans. 
His  face  was  cast  in  a  classic  mold ;  you  see  faces  like 
it  in  antique  marble  in  the  galleries  of  the  Vatican 
and  in  the  portraits  of  the  great  cardinal-statesmen  of 
Italy;  his  voice  was  the  voice  of  the  perfect  orator — 
ringing,  vibrating,  tireless,   persuading  by  its  very 
sound,  by  its  accent  of  sincere  conviction.    So  prudent 
and  so  guarded  were  all  his  utterances,  so  lofty  his 
courtesy,  that  he  never  embarrassed  his  friends,  and 
never  offended  his  opponents.     For  several  months 
before  the  Republican   National   Convention  met  in 
1896,  it  was  evident  to  all  who  had  eyes  to  see  that 
Mr.  McKinley  was  the  only  probable  candidate  of  his 
party.     Other  names  were  mentioned,  of  the  highest 
rank  in  ability,  character,  and  popularity;  they  were 
supported  by  powerful  combinations;  but  the  nomi- 
nation of  McKinley  as  against  the  field  was  inevitable. 
The  campaign  he  made  will  be  always  memorable 
in  our  political  annals.  He  and  his  friends  had  thought 
that  the  issue  for  the  year  was  the  distinctive  and 
historic  difference  between  the  two  parties   on  the 
subject  of  the  tariff.    To  this  wager  of  battle  the  dis- 
cussions of  the  previous  four  years  distinctly  pointed. 
But  no  sooner  had  the  two  parties  made  their  nomi- 
nations than  it  became  evident  that  the  opposing  can- 
didate declined  to  accept  the  field  of  discussion  chosen 
by  the  Republicans,  and  proposed  to  put  forward  as 


121 

the  main  issue  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver. 
McKinley  at  once  accepted  this  challenge,  and,  taking 
the  battle  for  protection  as  already  won,  went  with 
energy  into  the  discussion  of  the  theories  presented 
by  his  opponents.  He  had  wisely  concluded  not  to 
leave  his  home  during  the  canvass,  thus  avoiding  a 
proceeding  which  has  always  been  of  sinister  augury 
in  our  politics ;  but  from  the  front  porch  of  his  modest 
house  in  Canton  he  daily  addressed  the  delegations 
which  came  from  every  part  of  the  country  to  greet 
him  in  a  series  of  speeches  so  strong,  so  varied,  so 
pertinent,  so  full  of  facts  briefly  set  forth,  of  theories 
embodied  in  a  single  phrase,  that  they  formed  the 
hourly  text  for  the  other  speakers  of  his  party,  and 
give  probably  the  most  convincing  proof  we  have  of 
his  surprising  fertility  of  resource  and  flexibility  of 
mind.  All  this  was  done  without  anxiety  or  strain.  I 
remember  a  day  I  spent  with  him  during  that  busy 
summer.  He  had  made  nineteen  speeches  the  day  be- 
fore, that  day  he  made  many.  But  in  the  intervals  of 
these  addresses  he  sat  in  his  study  and  talked,  with 
nerves  as  quiet  and  a  mind  as  free  from  care  as  if  we 
had  been  spending  a  holiday  at  the  seaside  or  among 
the  hills. 

When  he  came  to  the  Presidency  he  confronted  a 
situation  of  the  utmost  difficulty,  which  might  well 
have  appalled  a  man  of  less  serene  and  tranquil  self- 
confidence.  There  had  been  a  state  of  profound  com- 
mercial and  industrial  depression,  from  which  his 
friends  had  said  his  election  would  relieve  the  country. 
Our  relations  with  the  outside  world  left  much  to  be 
desired.  The  feeling  between  the  Northern  and  South- 
ern sections  of  the  Union  was  lacking  in  the  cordiality 
which  was  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  both.  Hawaii 


122 

had  asked  for  annexation  and  had  been  rejected  by  the 
preceding  Administration.  There  was  a  state  of  things 
in  the  Caribbean  which  could  not  permanently  endure. 
Our  neighbor's  house  was  on  fire,  and  there  were  grave 
doubts  as  to  our  rights  and  duties  in  the  premises.  A 
man  either  weak  or  rash,  either  irresolute  or  head- 
strong, might  have  brought  ruin  on  himself  and  in- 
calculable harm  to  the  country. 

Again  I  crave  the  pardon  of  those  who  differ  with 
me,  if,  against  all  my  intentions,  I  happen  to  say  a 
word  which  may  seem  to  them  unbefitting  the  place 
and  hour.  But  I  am  here  to  give  the  opinion  which 
his  friends  entertained  of  President  McKinley,  of 
course  claiming  no  immunity  from  criticism  in  what  I 
shall  say.  I  believe,  then,  that  the  verdict  of  history 
will  be  that  he  met  all  these  grave  questions  with  per- 
fect valor  and  incomparable  ability ;  that  in  grappling 
with  them  he  rose  to  the  full  height  of  a  great  occasion, 
in  a  manner .  which  redounded  to  the  lasting  benefit 
of  the  country  and  to  his  own  immortal  honor. 

The  least  desirable  form  of  glory  to  a  man  of  his 
habitual  mood  and  temper — that  of  successful  war — 
was  nevertheless  conferred  upon  him  by  uncontrollable 
events.  He  felt  the  conflict  must  come;  he  deplored 
its  necessity;  he  strained  almost  to  breaking  his  re- 
lations with  his  friends,  in  order,  first,  if  it  might  be, 
to  prevent  and  then  to  postpone  it  to  the  latest  possible 
moment.  But  when  the  die  was  cast,  he  labored  with 
the  utmost  energy  and  ardor,  and  with  an  intelligence 
in  military  matters  which  showed  how  much  of  the 
soldier  still  -survived  in  the  mature  statesman  to  push 
forward  the  war  to  a  decisive  close.  War  was  an 
anguish  to  him;  he  wanted  it  short  and  conclusive. 
His  merciful  zeal  communicated  itself  to  his  subordi- 


123 

nates,  and  the  war,  so  long  dreaded,  whose  conse- 
quences were  so  momentous,  ended  in  a  hundred  days. 

Mr.  Stedman,  the  dean  of  our  poets,  has  called 
him  "Augmenter  of  the  State."  It  is  a  noble  title ;  if 
justly  conferred,  it  ranks  him  among  the  few  whose 
names  may  be  placed  definitely  and  forever  in  charge 
of  the  historic  Muse.  Under  his  rule  Hawaii  has  come 
to  us,  and  Tutuila;  Porto  Rico  and  the  vast  archipel- 
ago of  the  East.  Cuba  is  free.  Our  position  in  the 
Caribbean  is  assured  beyond  the  possibility  of  future 
question.  The  doctrine  called  by  the  name  of  Monroe, 
so  long  derided  and  denied  by  alien  publicists,  evokes 
now  no  challenge  or  contradiction  when  uttered  to  the 
world.  It  has  become  an  international  truism.  Our 
sister  Republics  to  the  south  of  us  are  convinced  that 
we  desire  only  their  peace  and  prosperity.  Europe 
knows  that  we  cherish  no  dreams  but  those  of  world- 
wide commerce,  the  benefit  of  which  shall  be  to  all 
nations.  The  state  is  augmented,  but  it  threatens  no 
nation  under  heaven.  As  to  those  regions  which  have 
come  under  the  shadow  of  our  flag,  the  possibility  of 
their  being  damaged  by  such  a  change  of  circum- 
stances was  in  the  view  of  McKinley  a  thing  unthink- 
able. To  believe  that  we  could  not  administer  them  to 
their  advantage  was  to  turn  infidel  to  our  American 
faith  of  more  than  a  hundred  years. 

In  dealing  with  foreign  powers,  he  will  take  rank 
with  the  greatest  of  our  diplomatists.  It  was  a  world 
of  which  he  had  little  special  knowledge  before  coming 
to  the  Presidency.  But  his  marvelous  adaptability 
was  in  nothing  more  remarkable  than  in  the  firm  grasp 
he  immediately  displayed  in  international  relations. 
In  preparing  for  war  and  in  the  restoration  of  peace 
he  was  alike  adroit,  courteous,  and  far-sighted.  When 


124 

a  sudden  emergency  declared  itself,  as  in  China,  in  a 
state  of  things  of  which  our  history  furnished  no 
precedent  and  international  law  no  safe  and  certain 
precept,  he  hesitated  not  a  moment  to  take  the  course 
marked  out  for  him  by  considerations  of  humanity  and 
the  national  interests.  Even  while  the  legations  were 
fighting  for  their  lives  against  bands  of  infuriated 
fanatics,  he  decided  that  we  were  at  peace  with  China ; 
and  while  that  conclusion  did  not  hinder  him  from 
taking  the  most  energetic  measures  to  rescue  our  im- 
periled citizens,  it  enabled  him  to  maintain  close  and 
friendly  relations  with  the  wise  and  heroic  viceroys 
of  the  South,  whose  resolute  stand  saved  that  ancient 
Empire  from  anarchy  and  spoliation.  He  disposed  of 
every  question  as  it  arose  with  a  promptness  and 
clarity  of  vision  that  astonished  his  advisers,  and  he 
never  had  occasion  to  review  a  judgment  or  reverse 
a  decision. 

By  patience,  by  firmness,  by  sheer  reasonableness, 
he  improved  our  understanding  with  all  the  great 
powers  of  the  world,  and  rightly  gained  the  blessing 
which  belongs  to  the  peacemakers. 

But  the  achievements  of  the  Nation  in  war  and 
diplomacy  are  thrown  in  the  shade  by  the  vast  eco- 
nomic developments  which  took  place  during  Mr.  Mc- 
Kinley's  administration.  Up  to  the  time  of  his  first 
election,  the  country  was  suffering  from  a  long  period 
of  depression,  the  reasons  of  which  I  will  not  try  to 
seek.  But  from  the  moment  the  ballots  were  counted 
that  betokened  his  advent  to  power  a  great  and  mo- 
mentous movement  in  advance  declared  itself  along 
all  the  lines  of  industry  and  commerce.  In  the  very 
month  of  his  inauguration  steel  rails  began  to  be  sold 
at  eighteen  dollars  a  ton — one  of  the  most  significant 


125 

facts  of  modern  times.  It  meant  that  American  in- 
dustries had  adjusted  themselves  to  the  long  depres- 
sion; that  through  the  power  of  the  race  to  organize 
and  combine,  stimulated  by  the  conditions  then  pre- 
vailing, and  perhaps  by  the  prospect  of  legislation 
favorable  to  industry,  America  had  begun  to  undersell 
the  rest  of  the  world.  The  movement  went  on  without 
ceasing.  The  President  and  his  party  kept  the  pledges 
of  their  platform  and  their  canvass.  The  Dingley 
bill  was  speedily  framed  and  set  in  operation.  All 
industries  responded  to  the  new  stimulus  and  Ameri- 
can trade  set  out  on  its  new  crusade,  not  to  conquer 
the  world,  but  to  trade  with  it  on  terms  advantageous 
to  all  concerned. 

I  will  not  worry  you  with  statistics;  but  one  or 
two  words  seem  necessary  to  show  how  the  acts  of 
McKinley  as  President  kept  pace  with  his  professions 
as  candidate.  His  four  years  of  administration  were 
costly;  we  carried  on  a  war  which,  though  brief,  was 
expensive.  Although  we  borrowed  two  hundred  mil- 
lions and  paid  our  own  expenses,  without  asking  for 
indemnity,  the  effective  reduction  of  the  debt  now  ex- 
ceeds the  total  of  the  war  bonds.  We  pay  six  millions 
less  in  interest  than  we  did  before  the  war  and  no 
bond  of  the  United  States  yields  the  holder  two  per 
cent  on  its  market  value.  So  much  for  the  Govern- 
ment credit;  and  we  have  five  hundred  and  forty-six 
millions  of  gross  gold  in  the  Treasury. 

But,  coming  to  the  development  of  our  trade  in 
the  four  McKinley  years,  we  seem  to  be  entering  the 
realm  of  fable.  In  the  last  fiscal  year  our  excess  of 
exports  over  imports  was  six  hundred  and  sixty-four 
million  five  hundred  and  ninety-two  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  twenty-six  dollars.  In  the  last  four  years 


126 

it  was  two  billion  three  hundred  and  fifty-four  million 
four  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand  two  hundred  and 
thirteen  dollars.  These  figures  are  so  stupendous  that 
they  mean  little  to  a  careless  reader — but  consider! 
The  excess  of  exports  over  imports  for  the  whole  pre- 
ceding period  from  1790  to  1897 — from  Washington  to 
McKinley — was  only  three  hundred  and  fifty-six  mil- 
lion eight  hundred  and  eight  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  twenty-two  dollars. 

The  most  extravagant  promises  made  by  the  san- 
guine McKinley  advocates  five  years  ago  are  left  out  of 
sight  by  these  sober  facts.  The  "debtor  Nation"  has 
become  the  chief  creditor  Nation.  The  financial  center 
of  the  world,  which  required  thousands  of  years  to 
journey  from  Euphrates  to  the  Thames  and  the  Seine, 
seems  passing  to  the  Hudson  between  daybreak  and 
dark. 

I  will  not  waste  your  time  by  explaining  that  I 
do  not  invoke  for  any  man  the  credit  of  this  vast  re- 
sult. The  captain  cannot  claim  that  it  is  he  who  drives 
the  mighty  steamship  over  the  tumbling  billows  of  the 
trackless  deep;  but  praise  is  justly  due  him  if  he  has 
made  the  best  of  her  tremendous  powers,  if  he  has 
read  aright  the  currents  of  the  sea  and  the  lessons  of 
the  stars.  And  we  should  be  ungrateful  if  in  this 
hour  of  prodigious  prosperity  we  should  fail  to  re- 
member that  William  McKinley  with  sublime  faith 
foresaw  it,  with  indomitable  courage  labored  for  it, 
put  his  whole  heart  and  mind  into  the  work  of  bring- 
ing it  about ;  that  it  was  his  voice  which,  in  dark  hours, 
rang  out,  heralding  the  coming  light,  as  over  the  twi- 
light waters  of  the  Nile  the  mystic  cry  of  Memnon  an- 
nounced the  dawn  to  Egypt,  waking  from  sleep. 


127 

Among  the  most  agreeable  incidents  of  the  Presi- 
dent's term  of  office  were  the  two  journeys  he  made 
to  the  South.  The  moral  reunion  of  the  sections — so 
long  and  so  ardently  desired  by  him — had  been  initi- 
ated by  the  Spanish  War,  when  the  veterans  of  both 
sides,  and  their  sons,  had  marched  shoulder  to  shoulder 
together  under  the  same  banner.  The  President  in 
these  journeys  sought,  with  more  than  usual  eloquence 
and  pathos,  to  create  a  sentiment  which  should  end 
forever  the  ancient  feud.  He  was  too  good  a  politician 
to  expect  .any  results  in  the  way  of  votes  in  his  favor, 
and  he  accomplished  none.  But  for  all  that  the  good 
seed  did  not  fall  on  barren  ground.  In  the  warm  and 
chivalrous  hearts  of  that  generous  people,  the  echo  of 
his  cordial  and  brotherly  words  will  linger  long,  and 
his  name  will  be  cherished  in  many  a  household  where 
even  yet  the  Lost  Cause  is  worshipped. 

Mr.  McKinley  was  re-elected  by  an  overwhelming 
majority.  There  had  been  little  doubt  of  the  result 
among  well-informed  people;  but  when  it  was  known, 
a  profound  feeling  of  relief  and  renewal  of  trust  were 
evident  among  the  leaders  of  capital  and  of  industry, 
not  only  in  this  country,  but  everywhere.  They  felt 
that  the  immediate  future  was  secure,  and  that  trade 
and  commerce  might  safely  push  forward  in  every 

field  of  effort  and  enterprise.     He  inspired  universal 

• 
confidence,  which  is  the  lifeblood  of  the  commercial 

system  of  the  world.  It  began  frequently  to  be  said 
that  such  a  state  of  things  ought  to  continue ;  one  after 
another,  men  of  prominence  said  that  the  President 
was  his  own  best  successor.  He  paid  little  attention 
to  these  suggestions  until  they  were  repeated  by  some 
of  his  nearest  friends.  Then  he  saw  that  one  of  the 
most  cherished  traditions  of  our  public  life  was  in 


128 

danger.  The  generation  which  has  seen  the  prophecy 
of  the  Papal  throne — Non  videbis  annos  Petri — twice 
contradicted  by  the  longevity  of  holy  men  was  in  peril 
of  forgetting  the  unwritten  law  of  our  Republic :  Thou 
shalt  not  exceed  the  years  of  Washington.  The  Presi- 
dent saw  it  was  time  to  speak,  and  in  his  character- 
istic manner  he  spoke,  briefly,  but  enough.  Where  the 
lightning  strikes  there  is  no  need  of  iteration.  From 
that  hour,  no  one  dreamed  of  doubting  his  purpose  of 
retiring  at  the  end  of  his  second  term,  and  it  will  be 
long  before  another  such  lesson  is  required. 

He  felt  that  the  harvest  time  was  come,  to  garner 
in  the  fruits  of  so  much  planting  and  culture,  and  he 
was  determined  that  nothing  he  might  do  or  say  should 
be  liable  to  the  reproach  of  a  personal  interest.  Let 
us  say  frankly  he  was  a  party  man;  he  believed  the 
policies  advocated  by  him  and  his  friends  counted  for 
much  in  the  country's  progress  and  prosperity.  He 
hoped  in  his  second  term  to  accomplish  substantial 
results  in  the  development  and  affirmation  of  those 
policies.  I  spent  a  day  with  him  shortly  before  he 
started  on  his  fateful  journey  to  Buffalo.  Never  had 
I  seen  him  higher  in  hope  and  patriotic  confidence.  He 
was  as  sure  of  the  future  of  his  country  as  the  Psalmist 
who  cried:  "Glorious  things  are  spoken  of  thee,  thou 
City  of  God."  He  was  gratified  to  the  heart  that  we 
had  arranged  a  treaty  which  gave  us  a  free  hand  in 
the  Isthmus.  In  fancy  he  saw  the  canal  already  built 
and  the  argosies  of  the  world  passing  through  it  in 
peace  and  amity.  He  saw  in  the  immense  evolution 
of  American  trade  the  fulfillment  of  all  his  dreams, 
the  reward  of  all  his  labors.  He  was — I  need  not  say 
— an  ardent  protectionist,  never  more  sincere  and  de- 
voted than  during  those  last  days  of  his  life.  He  re- 


129 

garded  reciprocity  as  the  bulwark  of  protection — not 
a  breach,  but  a  fulfillment  of  the  law.  The  treaties 
which  for  four  years  had  been  preparing  under  his 
personal  supervision  he  regarded  as  ancillary  to  the 
general  scheme.  He  was  opposed  to  any  revolutionary 
plan  of  change  in  the  existing  legislation ;  he  was  care- 
ful to  point  out  that  everything  he  had  done  was  in 
faithful  compliance  with  the  law  itself. 

In  that  mood  of  high  hope,  of  generous  expecta- 
tion, he  went  to  Buffalo,  and  there,  on  the  threshold 
of  eternity,  he  delivered  that  memorable  speech, 
worthy  for  its  loftiness  of  tone,  its  blameless  morality, 
its  breadth  of  view,  to  be  regarded  as  his  testament 
to  the  Nation.  Through  all  his  pride  of  country  and 
his  joy  in  its  success,  runs  the  note  of  solemn  warning, 
as  in  Kipling's  noble  hymn:  "Lest  we  forget." 

"Our  capacity  to  produce  has  developed  so  enor- 
mously and  our  products  have  so  multiplied  that  the 
problem  of  more  markets  requires  our  urgent  and  im- 
mediate attention.  Only  a  broad  and  enlightened 
policy  will  keep  what  we  have.  No  other  policy  will 
get  more.  In  these  times  of  marvelous  business  energy 
and  gain  we  ought  to  be  looking  to  the  future, 
strengthening  the  weak  places  in  our  industrial  and 
commercial  systems,  that  we  may  be  ready  for  any 
storm  or  strain. 

"By  sensible  trade  arrangements  which  will  not 
interrupt  our  home  production  we  shall  extend  the 
outlets  for  our  increasing  surplus.  A  system  which 
provides  a  mutual  exchange  of  commodities  is  mani- 
festly essential  to  the  continued  and  healthful  growth 
of  our  export  trade.  We  must  not  repose  in  fancied 
security  that  we  can  forever  sell  everything  and  buy 
little  or  nothing.  If  such  a  thing  were  possible,  it 


130 

would  not  be  best  for  us  for  those  with  whom  we  deal. 
*  *  *  Reciprocity  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  our 
wonderful  industrial  development  under  the  domestic 
policy  now  firmly  established.  *  *  *  The  period 
of  exclusiveness  is  past.  The  expansion  of  our  trade 
and  commerce  is  the  pressing  problem.  Commercial 
wars  are  unprofitable.  A  policy  of  good  will  and 
friendly  trade  relations  will  prevent  reprisals.  Reci- 
procity treaties  are  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the 
times ;  measures  of  retaliation  are  not." 

I  wish  I  had  time  to  read  the  whole  of  this  wise 
and  weighty  speech;  nothing  I  might  say  could  give 
such  a  picture  of  the  President's  mind  and  character. 
His  years  of  apprenticeship  had  been  served.  He  stood 
that  day  past  master  of  the  art  of  statesmanship.  He 
had  nothing  more  to  ask  of  the  people.  He  owed  them 
nothing  but  truth  and  faithful  service.  His  mind  and 
heart  were  purged  of  the  temptations  which  beset  all 
men  engaged  in  the  struggle  to  survive.  In  view  of 
the  revelation  of  his  nature  vouchsafed  to  us  that  day, 
and  the  fate  which  impended  over  him,  we  can  only 
say  in  deep  affection  and  solemn  awe:  "Blessed  are 
the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."  Even  for 
that  vision  he  was  not  unworthy. 

He  had  not  long  to  wait.  The  next  day  sped  the 
bolt  of  doom,  and  for  a  week  after — in  an  agony  of 
dread  broken  by  illusive  glimpses  of  hope  that  our 
prayers  might  be  answered — the  Nation  waited  for 
the  end.  Nothing  in  the  glorious  life  that  we  saw 
gradually  waning  was  more  admirable  and  exemplary 
than  its  close.  The  gentle  humanity  of  his  words, 
when  he  saw  his  assailant  in  danger  of  summary 
vengeance :  "Don't  let  them  hurt  him" ;  his  chivalrous 
care  that  the  news  should  be  broken  gently  to  his  wife ; 


131 

the  fine  courtesy  with  which  he  apologized  for  the 
damage  which  his  death  would  bring  to  the  great  ex- 
hibition ;  and  the  heroic  resignation  of  his  final  words : 
"It  is  God's  way.  His  will,  not  ours,  be  done" — were 
all  the  instinctive  expressions  of  a  nature  so  lofty  and 
so  pure  that  pride  in  its  nobility  at  once  softened  and 
enhanced  the  Nation's  sense  of  loss.  The  Republic 
grieved  over  such  a  son,  but  is  proud  forever  of  having 
produced  him.  After  all,  in  spite  of  its  tragic  ending, 
his  life  was  extraordinarily  happy.  He  had,  all  his 
days,  troops  of  friends,  the  cheer  of  fame  and  fruitful 
labor;  and  he  became  at  last — 

"On  fortune's  crowning  slope, 
The  pillar  of  a  people's  hope, 
The  center  of  a  world's  desire." 

He  was  fortunate  even  in  his  untimely  death,  for 
an  event  so  tragical  called  the  world  imperatively  to 
the  immediate  study  of  his  life  and  character,  and  thus 
anticipated  the  sure  praises  of  posterity. 

Every  young  and  growing  people  has  to  meet,  at 
moments,  the  problems  of  its  destiny.  Whether  the 
question  comes,  as  in  Thebes,  from  a  sphinx,  symbol 
of  the  hostile  forces  of  omnipotent  nature,  who  pun- 
ishes with  instant  death  our  failure  to  understand  her 
meaning;  or  whether  it  comes,  as  in  Jerusalem,  from 
the  Lord  of  Hosts,  who  commands  the  building  of  His 
temple,  it  comes  always  with  the  warning  that  the 
past  is  past,  and  experience  vain.  "Your  fathers, 
where  are  they?  and  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for- 
ever?" The  fathers  are  dead;  the  prophets  are  silent; 
the  questions  are  new,  and  have  no  answer  but  in  time. 

When  the  horny  outside  case  which  protects  the 
infancy  of  a  chrysalis  nation  suddenly  bursts,  and,  in 
a  single  abrupt  shock,  it  finds  itself  floating  on  wings 


132 

which  had  not  existed  before,  whose  strength  it  has 
never  tested,  among  dangers  it  can  not  foresee  and  is 
without  experience  to  measure,  every  motion  is  a  prob- 
lem, and  every  hesitation  may  be  an  error.  The  past 
gives  no  clue  to  the  future.  The  fathers,  where  are 
they?  and  the  prophets,  do  they  live  forever?  We  are 
ourselves  the  fathers !  We  are  ourselves  the  prophets ! 
The  questions  that  are  put  to  us  we  must  answer  with- 
out delay,  without  help — for  the  Sphinx  allows  no  one 
to  pass. 

At  such  moments  we  may  be  humbly  grateful  to 
have  had  leaders  simple  in  mind,  clear  in  vision — as 
far  as  human  vision  can  safely  extend — penetrating  in 
knowledge  of  men,  supple  and  flexible  under  the 
strains  and  pressures  of  society,  instinct  with  the 
energy  of  new  life  and  untried  strength,  cautious, 
calm,  and,  above  all,  gifted  in  a  supreme  degree  with 
the  most  surely  victorious  of  all  political  virtues — the 
genius  of  infinite  patience. 

The  obvious  elements  which  enter  into  the  fame 
of  a  public  man  are  few  and  by  no  means  recondite. 
The  man  who  fills  a  great  station  in  a  period  of  change, 
who  leads  his  country  successfully  through  a  time  of 
crisis,  who,  by  his  power  of  persuading  and  control- 
ling others,  has  been  able  to  command  the  best  thought 
of  his  age,  so  as  to  leave  his  country  in  a  moral  or 
material  condition  in  advance  of  where  he  found  it — 
such  a  man's  position  in  history  is  secure.  If,  in  ad- 
dition to  this,  his  written  or  spoken  words  possess  the 
subtle  quality  which  carry  them  far  and  lodge  them  in 
men's  hearts ;  and,  more  than  all,  if  his  utterances  and 
actions,  while  informed  with  a  lofty  morality,  are  yet 
tinged  with  the  glow  of  human  sympathy,  the  fame 
of  such  a  man  will  shine  like  a  beacon  through  the 


133 

mists  of  ages — an  object  of  reverence,  of  imitation, 
and  of  love.  It  should  be  to  us  an  occasion  of  solemn 
pride  that  in  the  three  great  crises  of  our  history  such 
a  man  was  not  denied  us.  The  moral  value  to  a  nation 
of  a  renown  such  a  Washington's  and  Lincoln's  and 
McKinley's  is  beyond  all  computation.  No  loftier  ideal 
can  be  held  up  to  the  emulation  of  ingenuous  youth. 
With  such  examples  we  cannot  be  wholly  ignoble. 
Grateful  as  we  may  be  for  what  they  did,  let  us  be 
still  more  grateful  for  what  they  were.  While  our 
daily  being,  our  public  policies,  still  feel  the  influence 
of  their  work,  let  us  pray  that  in  our  spirits  their 
lives  may  be  voluble,  calling  us  upward  and  onward. 
There  is  not  one  of  us  but  feels  prouder  of  his 
native  land  because  the  august  figure  of  Washington, 
presided  over  its  beginnings;  no  one  but  vows  it  a 
tenderer  love  because  Lincoln  poured  out  his  blood 
for  it ;  no  one  but  must  feel  his  devotion  for  his  coun- 
try renewed  and  kindled  when  he  remembers  how  Mc- 
Kinley  loved,  revered,  and  served  it,  showed  in  his  life 
how  a  citizen  should  live,  and  in  his  last  hour  taught 
us  how  a  gentleman  could  die. 


PROCEEDINGS 

of  the 
SENATE  and  ASSEMBLY 

of  the 
STATE  OF  NEW  YORK 

on  the 
Life,  Character  and  Public  Services 

of 
WILLIAM  McKINLEY 

+      *      + 
March  4,  1902 

+      +      + 
Albany,  New  York 


JOINT  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE 
+      +      * 

Committee  of  the  Senate 

TIMOTHY  E.  ELLSWORTH  JOHN  RAINES 

THOMAS  F.  GRADY 

+      *      + 

Committee  of  the  Assembly 

JOTHAM  P.  ALLDS  OTTO  KELSEY 

Louis  BEDELL  GEORGE  M.  PALMER 

JOHN  MCKEOWN 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE 

of  the 

STATE  OF  NEW  YORK 
relative  to  the  Life  and  Services 

of 
WILLIAM  MCKINLEY 

ifr        >£        >f 

Born  January  29,  1843 
Died  September  14,  1901 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE 

*      *      * 
In  Senate,  January  9,  1902 

Mr.  Ellsworth,  Temporary  President,  offered  the 
following  resolution: 

Resolved  (if  the  Assembly  concur) ,  That  a  joint 
committee  of  the  Legislature  be  appointed,  to  consist 
of  three  Senators,  to  be  appointed  by  the  President 
of  the  Senate,  and  five  members  of  the  Assembly,  to 
be  appointed  by  the  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  to  ar- 
range for  and  conduct  suitable  memorial  exercises  by 
which  the  Legislature  may  express  its  appreciation  of 
the  statesmanship  and  virtues  of  William  McKinley, 
late  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  who 
was  assassinated  at  the  city  of  Buffalo,  in  this  State, 
in  the  month  of  September  last;  its  abhorrence  of  the 
crime  and  its  sympathy  for  his  bereaved  family. 

The  President  put  the  question  whether  the  Sen- 
ate would  agree  to  said  resolution,  and  it  was  decided 
in  the  affirmative. 

Ordered,  That  the  clerk  deliver  said  resolution  to 
the  Assembly  and  request  their  concurrence  therein. 

The  Assembly  subsequently  returned  the  concur- 
rent resolution  with  a  message  that 

Mr.  Speaker  put  the  question  whether  the  House 
would  agree  to  said  resolution,  and  it  was  determined 
in  the  affirmative. 

Ordered,  That  the  Clerk  return  said  resolution  to 
the  Senate,  with  a  message  that  the  Assembly  have 
concurred  in  the  passage  of  the  same. 

The  President  appointed  as  the  committee  on  the 

139 


140 

part  of  the  Senate  to  act  with  the  committee  on  the 
part  of  the  Assembly  to  arrange  memorial  exercises 
in  appreciation  of  the  statesmanship  and  virtues  of 
William  McKinley,  Messrs.  Ellsworth,  Raines  and 
Grady. 

Mr.  Speaker  appointed  as  such  committee,  on  the 
part  of  the  Assembly,  Messrs.  Allds,  Kelsey,  Bedell, 
Palmer  and  McKeown. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  above  joint  committee  it  was 
decided  to  hold  a  memorial  service  in  the  Assembly 
Chamber  on  Tuesday  evening,  March  4,  1902,  and  that 
Hon.  Charles  Emory  Smith  be  invited  by  the  com- 
mittee to  deliver  the  memorial  address. 
In  Senate,  January  29,  1902. 

Mr.  Green  made  the  following  motion : 

Mr.  President :  Today  is  the  birthday  of  the  late 
lamented  President  of  the  United  States,  William  Mc- 
Kinley, a  day  set  aside  in  many  places  for  the  closing 
of  the  schools  and  doing  honor  and  paying  homage  to 
the  memory  of  one  of  the  greatest  if  not  indeed  the 
greatest  statesman  of  his  age.  It  occurs  to  me  that 
it  is  highly  proper  that  the  Senate  of  the  State  of 
New  York  should  take  some  action  in  commemoration 
of  the  day  and  in  memory  of  William  McKinley,  and 
therefore  I  move  that  this  Senate  do  now  adjourn  out 
of  respect  to  the  memory  of  William  McKinley  and 
in  commemoration  of  his  birthday. 

Senator  Grady :  If  the  Senator  will  withdraw  his 
motion  for  a  moment  and  allow  me  to  say,  and  in  say- 
ing it  I  endeavor  to  express  what  I  know  to  be  the 
sentiments  of  my  associates  upon  this  side  of  the 
chamber,  that  there  is  no  mark  of  admiration,  there 
is  no  token  of  respect  that  can  be  paid  to  the  memory 
and  to  the  services  of  William  McKinley  which  we  are 


141 

not  prepared  to  sincerely  and  cheerfully  accord.  When 
one  sacrifices  his  life  for  his  country,  when  one  is 
stricken  down  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin  because  he 
is  the  representative  of  authority  against  which  an- 
archy and  redhanded  socialism  raises  its  hand,  he 
leaves  the  rank  of  official  and  statesman,  and  even 
patriot,  and  takes  his  place  among  the  heroes.  And  so 
we  regard  the  dead  President,  not  so  much  as  one  who 
in  a  long  and  varied  public  career  won  the  affections 
and  confidence  and  the  respect  of  his  political  friends 
and  the  admiration  of  his  political  foes,  not  so  much 
for  the  qualities  of  statesmanship  that  he  exhibited, 
but  in  common  with  all  the  rest — those  of  us  who 
differed  as  to  his  policy,  perhaps  arrayed  ourselves  in 
opposition  to  his  methods  of  government — today  we 
turn  our  eyes  to  his  place  in  the  gallery  of  heroes  as 
one  who  sacrificed  his  life  in  vindication  of  the  law 
and  the  majesty  of  the  law,  and  upon  each  anniversary 
of  his  birth,  and  very  much  oftener,  let  us  hope,  a 
grateful  people  of  this  Nation  will  remember  every 
service  of  William  McKinley  and  hold  him,  as  they  do 
now,  without  regard  to  political  affiliation,  in  their 
heart  of  hearts. 

The  President:  The  question  is  on  the  adoption 
of  the  motion  of  the  Senator  from  the  Thirty-Eighth, 
that  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn  out  of  respect  to  the 
memory  of  the  late  President,  William  McKinley. 
Those  in  favor  of  the  adoption  of  that  motion  will 
please  rise. 

It  is  unanimously  adopted.    The  Senate  is  now  ad- 
journed until  tomorrow  morning  at  eleven  o'clock. 
In  Assembly,  January  29,  1902. 

Mr.  Allds  offered  for  the  consideration  of  the 
House  a  resolution,  in  the  words  following: 


142 

Resolved,  That  the  House  do  now  adjourn  as  a 
testimonial  of  our  respect  and  esteem  to  the  memory 
of  the  late  President,  William  McKinley,  who  was 
born  fifty-nine  years  ago  today. 

Mr.  Allds  said :  Fifty-nine  years  ago,  on  this  day, 
occurred  an  event  which  at  that  time  was  unnoticed. 
It  marked  the  commencement  of  a  life  which  has  oc- 
cupied the  central  part  of  the  national  stage  during 
these  last  years.  I  regard  that  it  was  extremely  fit- 
ting, Mr.  Speaker,  that  this  Legislature  should  last 
week  have  made  suitable  arrangements  which  look 
toward  a  commemorative  service  over  the  memory  of 
William  McKinley.  Therefore,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  do  not 
regard  that  at  this  time  I  ought  to  give  utterance  to 
words  which  naturally,  would  be  fit  to  this  occasion. 
But  it  seemed,  Mr.  Speaker,  inasmuch  as  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  State  of  New  York  there 
are  gathered  in  every  school  house  our  school  children, 
today,  engaged  in  exercises  which  remind  them  of  the 
services  rendered  by  our  late  lamented  President ;  inas- 
much as  throughout  the  United  States  the  day  of  his 
birth  is  today  being  commemorated,  and  that  the  Gov- 
ernor has  issued  a  proclamation  in  this  State,  I  did 
not  regard  that  it  would  be  fitting  that  we  should  close 
the  morning's  session  without  being  mindful  of  the 
fact  that  this  day  did  mark  the  birthday  of  William 
McKinley,  and  that  when  we  separated  this  morning 
it  should  be  by  a  rising  vote  of  adjournment  as  a  testi- 
monial of  our  respect  and  of  our  remembrance  for  that 
man  who,  starting  from  the  common  people,  rose  step 
by  step,  until,  when,  unfortunately,  within  this  state, 
his  life  went  out,  he  was  beyond  any  question  the  best 
beloved  citizen  of  this  entire  country,  no  matter  what 
one's  politics  might  be,  no  matter  where  one  might 


143 

live  or  dwell,  for  he  was  of  the  common  people,  a  man 
throughout  his  entire  -career  laboring  for  the  common 
people,  and  when  he  did  finally  reach  the  Presidential 
chair,  a  true  American  laboring  for  Americans,  in  such 
a  way  that  he  commanded  the  respect  and  compelled 
the  respect  for  this  country  from  all  sister  nations, 
the  world  around. 

Mr.  Palmer:  Mr.  Speaker,  a  person  who  by  an 
assassin's  bullet  has  compassed  the  taking  of  an 
American  life,  whether  he  be  a  private  citizen  or  a 
public  personage,  aims  a  blow  not  only  at  the  heart  of 
an  individual  citizen,  but  aims  a  deadly  blow  as  well 
at  the  heart  of  our  common  and  beloved  country.  And, 
sir,  there  comes  a  time  in  the  history  of  nations  and 
the  history  of  men  when  the  invisible  line  which  seems 
to  divide  us — we  call  it  sometimes  politics  and  political 
thought — when  that  invisible  line  is  entirely  wiped 
out;  and  when  an  American  citizen  who  loves  his 
country  and  who  loves  its  institutions,  will  rally  to 
the  support  of  its  principles  and  to  the  support  of 
those  men  who  maintain  those  principles.  And  when 
a  man  dare  stand  out  and  direct  a  bullet  at  the  head 
of  our  common  country,  it  brings  us  all  together  as 
common  mourners  around  a  common  bier.  This  is 
where  we  stood  a  few  months  ago.  This  is  where  we 
stand  today  again,  in  memory,  and  this  is  where  we 
will  stand  so  long  as  any  incident  shall  occur  during 
our  memory  and  the  memory  of  those  who  shall  follow 
us,  that  shall  bring  us  back  to  a  time  when  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  William  McKinley,  was 
shot  dead  at  Buffalo  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  I 
say,  then,  that  this  is  a  question  that  appeals  to  the 
bosom  of  Americans ;  this  is  a  question  which  appeals 
to  our  love,  our  sympathy;  this  is  a  question  which 


144 

not  only  enters  the  individual  breast  but  appeals  to 
the  fireside  and  home  of  every  one  about  this  circle, 
and  when  we  appeal  to  the  home  we  appeal  to  the 
strength  of  our  American  institutions  today.  True,  it 
has  been  said  that  this  man  represents  every  citizen 
of  our  common  country.  He  came  through  the  walks 
known  as  the  common  walks  of  life ;  when  danger  was 
threatened  he,  in  connection  with  others,  stood  at  the 
battle  front  and  bared  his  breast  to  danger,  that  our 
flag  might  still  float  and  that  our  institutions  might 
live;  and  after  the  test  and  when  history  was  being 
written,  history  that  we  fondly  love,  this  man  emerged 
from  the  conflict  and  was  chosen  by  a  majority  of  the 
American  people,  whose  homes,  whose  property  inter- 
ests he  had  so  nobly  protected  upon  the  field  of  battle, 
and  by  choice  was  elected  to  be  the  chief  officer  of 
this  country,  which  he  had  helped  to  save,  and  in  this 
dignified  position  looking  all  along  back  through  the 
pathway  over  which  he  had  trod,  and  seeing  friends 
and  neighbors  all  along  that  pathway,  an  assassin,  a 
man  who  has  no  property  stake  in  this  country,  a  pro- 
letarian with  no  interest  in  common  with  ours,  aimed 
a  bullet  not  only  at  the  heart  of  this  distinguished 
citizen,  but  at  the  heart  of  our  common  country,  and 
assaulted  our  institutions ;  and  today  as  legislators  we 
are  looking  all  over  the  land  as  best  we  can  to  ex- 
terminate that  element  from  our  midst.  This  repre- 
sentative who  went  down  to  death  at  the  hands  of  our 
enemies,  we  should  commemorate  on  every  occasion 
that  is  befitting  for  such  commemoration.  I,  there- 
fore, Mr.  Speaker,  voicing  my  own  sentiment,  and  1 
know  I  voice  the  sentiment  of  the  majority  around 
this  circle,  will  second  the  resolution  which  has  been 
offered. 


145 

Mr.  Speaker:  Gentlemen,  you  have  heard  the 
motion  which  has  been  so  eloquently  made  by  the 
gentlemen  from  Chenango,  and  so  emphatically  en- 
dorsed by  the  gentlemen  from  Schoharie,  that  now,  as 
an  evidence  of  the  respect  and  esteem  in  which  we 
hold  the  memory  of  the  late  lamented  President,  that 
this  body  do  now  adjourn,  and  that  the  vote  upon  that 
motion  be  taken  by  a  rising  vote. 

Mr.  Speaker  put  the  question  whether  the  House 
would  agree  to  said  resolution,  and  it  was  determined 
in  the  affirmative  by  a  rising  vote. 

Whereupon  the  House  adjourned. 


MEMORIAL  EXERCISES 

T        *p        *p 

Assembly  Chamber,  March  4,  1902. 

The  Legislature  having  met  in  joint  session  in  the 
Assembly  Chamber  in  pursuance  of  the  arrangements 
made  by  the  joint  memorial  committee,  Benjamen  B. 
Odell,  Jr.,  Governor;  Hon.  Thomas  C.  Platt  and  Hon. 
Chauncey  M.  Depew,  United  States  Senators,  and 
State  officers  and  guests  being  present,  the  meeting 
was  called  to  order  by  the  Hon.  Timothy  E.  Ellsworth, 
chairman  of  the  joint  committee. 

The  quartet  and  chorus  of  All  Saints  Choir  sang 
"Blest  Are  The  Departed,"  from  Spohr's  "The  Last 
Judgment." 

Blest  are  the  departed  who  in  the  Lord  are  sleeping, 
From  henceforth,  forever  more: 

They  rest  from  their  labors,  and  their  works  follow 
them. 

Prayer  was  offered  by  Rt.  Rev.  William  Croswell 
Doane,  Bishop  of  Albany,  as  follows : 

Prayer  by  Rt.  Rev.  William  Croswell  Doane : 
Almighty  and  ever-living  God,  we  yield  unto  Thee 
most  high  praise  and  hearty  thanks  for  the  wonderful 
grace  and  virtue  declared  in  all  Thy  saints  who  have 
been  the  choice  vessels  of  Thy  grace  and  the  lights  of 
the  world  in  their  several  generations.  We  bless  Thy 
name  for  the  good  memory  and  holy  example  of  Thy 
servant,  William  McKinley,  to  whom  Thou  didst  give 
grace  to  live  well  and  to  rule  well  over  this  people, 
and  grace  to  die  in  Thy  faith  and  fear  and  in  Thy 
favor.  Make  us  patient  before  the  mystery  of  his 
violent  death.  Pardon  whatever  evil  in  us  may  have 

146 


147 

wrought  out  the  humiliation  of  its  dishonor.  Save  us 
from  the  spirit  of  disorder  and  misrule;  from  the 
carelessness  of  the  tongue  in  evil  speaking,  reviling 
and  slandering.  Convict  us  of  the  sins  of  our  pros- 
perity, our  pride,  our  boastfulnes,  our  forgetfulness 
of  Thee.  Protect  us  from  the  spread  of  license  instead 
of  liberty.  Convert  us  to  a  deeper  recognition  of  Thy 
authority  in  those  who  rule  over  us  that  we  may 
"faithfully  and  obediently  honor  them  in  Thee  and  for 
Thee";  and  make  them  mindful  whose  authority  they 
bear.  Make  light  perpetual  to  shine  upon  the  soul  of 
Thy  servant  whom  Thou  didst  call  so  suddenly  to  his 
rest.  Comfort  the  sorrow  of  those  who  were  so  sorely 
stricken  in  the  bereavement  of  his  death.  Guide  with 
Thy  counsel  and  govern  by  Thy  grace  Thy  servant 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  so  suddenly  called  to  the  responsi- 
bility of  ruling.  Make  this  great  nation  a  wise  and 
understanding  people,  that  we  may  fear  Thee  and  keep 
all  Thy  commandments  always,  that  it  may  be  well 
with  us  and  with  our  children  forever,  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  Amen! 

The  hymn,  "Lead,  Kindly  Light,"  was  sung  by  the 
choir  of  All  Saints  Church. 

Lead,  kindly  Light,  amid  the  encircling  gloom, 

Lead  Thou  me  on! 
The  night  is  dark,  and  I  am  far  from  home, 

Lead  Thou  me  on! 

Keep  Thou  my  feet !    I  do  not  ask  to  see 
The  distant  scene ;  one  step  enough  for  me. 

I  was  not  ever  thus,  nor  prayed  that  Thou 

Shouldst  lead  me  on; 
I  loved  to  choose  and  see  my  path ;  but  now 

Lead  Thou  me  on! 

I  loved  the  garish  day;  and,  spite  of  fears, 
Pride  ruled  my  will :   remember  not  past  years. 


So  long  Thy  power  has  blest  me,  sure  it  still 

Will  lead  me  on 
O'er  moor  and  fen,  o'er  craig  and  torrent,  till 

The  night  is  gone; 

And  with  the  morn  those  angel  faces  smile, 
Which  I  have  loved  long  since,  and  lost  awhile. 

Senator  Ellsworth  said:  Pursuant  to  a  joint 
resolution  of  the  Senate  and  Assembly,  the  members 
of  the  Senate  and  Assembly  and  their  invited  guests 
have  convened  in  this  Chamber  to  take  suitable  action 
in  memory  of  the  statesmanship  and  virtues  of  Wil- 
liam McKinley,  late  President  of  these  United  States, 
and  on  behalf  of  the  committee  I  present  as  your  pre- 
siding officer  Governor  Benjamin  B.  Odell,  Jr. 

Remarks  of  the  Presiding  Officer. 

Governor  Odell,  upon  taking  the  chair,  said : 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

We  meet  tonight  to  pay  our  tribute  of  respect  to 
the  memory  of  a  man  who  in  his  life  illustrated  the 
possibilities  of  American  manhood,  to  one  who  has  by 
his  devotion  upon  the  field  of  battle  and  in  the  halls 
of  our  National  Legislature,  as  well  as  in  the  highest 
office  within  the  gift  of  our  people,  won  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  the  world.  The  patriotic  manner 
in  which  he  met  every  question  and  every  new  respon- 
sibility that  he  was  called  upon  to  assume,  marked 
him  as  a  man  of  fearless  character,  whose  devotion 
to  his  country  was  only  measured  by  her  needs. 
Springing,  as  is  so  often  the  case,  from  humble  parent- 
age, struggling  with  the  vicissitudes  and  hardships  of 
life,  with  indomitable  courage  he  carved  out  for  him- 
self a  name  that  will  be  long  remembered  and  inscribed 
upon  the  tablets  of  fame  with  other  great  Americans 
who  had  preceded  him. 


149 

Meeting  his  fate  because  in  his  person  he  typified 
the  institutions  which  our  forefathers  had  established, 
he  passed  from  the  active  theatre  of  life  with  a  faith 
and  a  fortitude  which  illustrated  far  better  than  words 
his  belief  in  an  Omnipotent  Power.  Dying,  his  deeds 
still  live,  and  the  evolution  of  government  which  has 
marked  the  successive  generations  of  men  still  goes 
on  and  our  country  becomes  stronger  because  of  such 
lives  and  of  such  influences  as  characterized  that  of 
William  McKinley,  for  the  love  and  freedom  and  the 
ability  to  organize  liberty  into  institutions  is  a  fea- 
ture which  makes  of  America,  of  our  country  a  stable 
government  that  can  withstand  the  shock  of  arms  and 
the  blows  of  anarchy.  America  and  her  institutions 
are  a  protest  against  all  those  who  have  and  who  do 
oppose  freedom,  and  the  patriotism  of  her  youth  is 
the  guarantee  of  her  future.  While,  therefore,  we 
mourn  our  loss,  death  has  not  robbed  us  of  the  in- 
fluences which  those  who  have  labored  for  our  country 
have  left  behind  them  as  the  heritage  to  our  people. 

We  are  fortunate  to  have  with  us  one  whose 
privilege  it  was  to  have  been  associated  with  our 
martyred  President  during  his  lifetime,  who  has  kindly 
consented  to  address  you,  and  because  of  his  old  asso- 
ciations within  our  State,  to  speak  for  us  as  we  lay 
upon  the  bier  the  flower  of  grateful  recollection  for 
one  who  is  now  but  a  memory.  I  take  great  pleasure 
in  introducing  to  you  the  Hon.  Charles  Emory  Smith, 
the  orator  of  the  evening. 

The  Hon.  Charles  Emory  Smith  then  delivered 
the  memorial  address. 

The  choir  then  sang  "The  Radiant  Morn,"  by 
Woodward. 


150 

The  radiant  morn  hath  passed  away, 
And  spent  too  soon  her  golden  store; 

The  shadows  of  departing  day 
Creep  on  once  more. 

Our  life  is  but  a  fading  dawn, 

Its  glorious  noon,  how  quickly  past; 

Lead  us,  0  Christ,  our  life-work  done, 
Safe  home  at  last. 

Where  saints  are  clothed  in  spotless  white, 
And  evening  shadows  never  fall, 

Where  Thou,  eternal  Light  of  Light, 
Art  Lord  of  all. 

After  which  Rt.  Rev.  T.  M.  A.  Burke,  Bishop  of 
the  Diocese  of  Albany,  pronounced  the  following  bene- 
diction : 

Prayer  by  Rt.  Rev.  T.  M.  A.  Burke. 

O  Almighty  and  Eternal  God,  Thou  hast  taught 
us  by  the  Royal  .Psalmist  "Unless  the  Lord  build  the 
house,  they,  labor  in  vain  that  build  it.  Unless  the 
Lord  keep  the  city,  he  watcheth  in  vain  that  keepeth 
it."  Hence  we  acknowledge  that  it  is  only  by  Thy 
blessing  that  individuals  and  nations  can  prosper  and 
be  happy.  We  beseech  Thee,  therefore,  0  Lord,  to 
bless  our  Nation,  to  bless  our  State,  and  in  a  special 
in  these  solemn  services  in  honor  of  our  late  lamented 
President. 

May  the  blessing  of  God  the  Father,  the  Son,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost  descend  upon  all  of  us  here  present 
and  remain  with  us  forever.  Amen. 

Recessional :  "Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee,"  by  the 
choir : 


151 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 
Nearer  to  Thee, 

E'en  though  it  be  a  cross, 
That  raiseth  me; 

Still  all  my  song  shall  be, 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 
Nearer  to  Thee. 


Though  like  a  wanderer, 
Weary  and  lone, 

Darkness  comes  over  me, 
My  rest  a  stone; 

Yet  in  my  dreams  I'd  be 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 
Nearer  to  Thee. 


There  let  my  way  appear 
Steps  unto  heaven; 

All  that  Thou  sendest  me 
In  mercy  given; 

Angels  to  beckon  me 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 
Nearer  to  Thee. 


Then  with  my  waking  thoughts 
Bright  with  Thy  praise, 

Out  of  my  stony  griefs 
Altars  I'll  raise; 

So  by  my  woes  to  be 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 
Nearer  to  Thee. 


Or  if  on  joyful  wing, 
Cleaving  the  sky, 

Sun,  moon,  and  stars  forgot, 
Upward  I  fly, 

Still  all  my  song  shall  be 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 
Nearer  to  Thee. 


McKINLEY  MEMORIAL  ADDRESS 

CHARLES  EMORY  SMITH 

On  Invitation  of  the  Governor  and  the 

Legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York 

Tuesday  Evening,  March  4,  1902 

•fc        Hh        <%• 

"As  long  as  he  lived  he  was  the  guiding  star  of 
a  whole  brave  nation,  and  when  he  died  the  little  chil- 
dren cried  in  the  streets." 

So  wrote  Motley  of  William,  the  great  Prince  of 
Orange,  who  enlarged  a  Republic  and  fell  under  the 
hand  of  an  assassin.  So  may  we  speak  of  the  dead 
President  who  by  a  cruel  fate  was  slain  within  the  bor- 
ders of  your  State  and  whose  memory  you  are  assem- 
bled to  honor.  Thrice  has  our  country  been  called  to 
mourn  a  murdered  President.  The  hot  passions  engen- 
dered by  civil  strife  impelled  the  first  blow.  The  aberra- 
ration  of  a  disturbed  brain,  distorted  by  a  perverted 
view  of  partisan  contention,  struck  the  second.  The 
third  came  in  an  hour  of  profound  calm,  at  a  time  of 
universal  good  feeling,  and  it  was  aimed  not  in  any  dis- 
ordered frenzy  at  the  gentle  individual,  but  with  cool 
and  stealthy  design  from  the  lair  of  lurking  anarchy 
at  the  head  of  the  State.  The  first  two  left  a  helpless 
sorrow,  the  third  leaves  a  relentless  duty.  The  grace 
of  President  McKinley's  life  and  the  vicariousness  of 
his  sacrifice  for  the  Republic  added  to  the  poignancy 
of  the  public  grief. 

"As  long  as  he  lived  he  was  the  guiding  star  of 
a  whole  brave  nation,  and  when  he  died  the  little  chil- 
dren cried  in  the  streets." 

158 


154 

Heritage  molds  character  and  character  shapes 
opportunity.  The  preparation  of  William  McKinley 
for  his  great  work  began  long  before  he  was  born. 
It  began  with  a  sturdy  and  rugged  ancestry,  imbued 
with  high  principle  and  with  patriotic  impulse.  He 
blended  the  thrift  and  force  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
Scotch  Irish  blood  with  the  strength  of  the  Puritan 
character.  For  more  than  a  century  the  robust  union 
had  been  tempered  with  the  uplifting  influence  of  our 
free  institutions  and  with  the  glorious  air  of  Ameri- 
can liberty,  and  an  original  stock  of  unsurpassed 
quality  was  developed  into  the  full  flower  of  purest 
Americanism.  On  both  sides  his  ancestors  fought  in 
the  Revolutionary  War,  as  he  fought  in  the  War  for 
the  Union,  and  frugal  lives,  sound  intelligence  and 
sterling  citizenship  distinguished  the  race  through 
successive  generations. 

Both  of  his  parents,  neither  high-born  nor  low- 
born, but  well  representing  the  plain  people,  were  of 
superior  quality.  In  the  benignity  of  the  maternal 
love  he  was  signally  blessed  like  Washington,  whose 
mother,  when  the  whole  world  rang  with  his  fame, 
could  proudly  and  modestly  answer  the  paeans  of 
praise  with  the  simple  words  "he  has  been  a  good  son 
and  I  believe  he  has  done  his  whole  duty  as  a  man." 
Under  the  nurture  of  such  a  mother,  whom  he  always 
cherished  with  the  fondest  affection,  he  learned  the 
elemental  lessons  of  piety  and  faith  and  duty,  and  in 
his  heart  were  early  implanted  the  enduring  principles 
of  conduct  and  the  fixed  sense  of  obedience  to  obliga- 
tion which  ruled  his  whole  life. 

He  was  but  seventeen  when  the  shot  at  Sumter 
startled  the  feverish  land.  Its  crash  roused  the  im- 
passioned people  to  a  sober  realization  that  the  angry 


155 

strife  of  sections  had  at  length  burst  into  a  war,  no 
one  yet  dreamed  how  mighty,  over  the  very  existence 
of  the  Union.  To  this  youth  of  conscience  and  patri- 
otic fervor  the  call  of  his  country  was  the  sufficient 
command  of  duty.  He  enlisted  in  the  ranks  of  a  regi- 
ment whose  muster  roll  answered  with  the  names  of 
two  future  Presidents,  one  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  the  hero  of  Chickamauga.  Little  time 
passed  before  his  youthful  ardor  and  his  constant 
fidelity  had  won  the  confidence  and  admiration  of  all. 
He  shared  all  the  hardships  and  all  the  glories  of  a 
marching  and  fighting  command.  He  slept  on  the 
tented  field  under  the  Summer's  heat  and  the  Winter's 
snow.  He  kept  watch  by  the  flickering  light  of  the 
bivouac.  He  followed  the  waving  plume  of  Sheridan 
through  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah.  He  seemed  to 
bear  a  charmed  life  as,  with  bated  breath  of  onlookers, 
he  rode  along  perilous  ways  through  the  storm  of  bul- 
lets at  Kernstown.  He  earned  his  first  promotion  by 
his  gallant  behaviour  on  the  bloodiest  of  days  at 
Antietam.  He  showed  his  quality  when  as  a  staff  of- 
ficer he  took  the  responsibility,  fortunately  justified  by 
the  result,  of  directing  a  general  of  division  at  a  vital 
point  in  the  battle  of  Opequan.  Had  he  been  a  man 
he  would  have  won  his  stars.  But  even  as  a  boy,  as 
a  boy  behind  the  gun,  he  rose  to  the  rank  of  major, 
and  came  out  of  the  war  with  a  rich  and  stern  experi- 
ence which  had  knit  and  strengthened  his  whole  men- 
tal and  moral  fibre.  Throwing  aside  his  sword  he 
immediately  addressed  himself  to  the  serious  work  of 
life.  He  began  the  study  of  law  at  his  home  and  pur- 
sued it  here  at  this  capital,  in  a  law  school  celebrated 
for  the  number  of  men  it  has  contributed  to  the  sue- 


156 

cesses  of  the  profession  and  the  distinction  of  a  public 
career. 

With  the  service  of  the  war  and  the  training  of 
school  behind  him  at  an  age  when  men  of  promise  are 
just  leaving  their  college  course,  he  settled  down  in 
Canton,  which  was  thenceforth  to  be  the  home  of  his 
love  and  pride,  and  in  after  years  the  Mecca  of  the 
myriads  who  would  lay  their  homage  at  his  sacred 
shrine.  His  success  was  swift  and  certain.  His  in- 
comparable charm  of  manner  and  beauty  of  character 
made  friends  of  all  within  his  range.  His  skill  and 
ability  in  counsel  and  in  speech  marked  him  for  sure 
and  recognized  leadership.  Within  three  years  he  was 
chosen  prosecuting  attorney,  and  in  1876,  at  the  age 
of  33,  he  was  elected  to  Congress  and  entered  in  his 
extraordinary  political  career.  Thenceforward  to  the 
untimely  end  he  advanced  with  an  unbroken  growth 
and  a  widening  power  till  at  last  he  stood  the  fore- 
most ruler  with  the  broadest  influence  on  the  loftiest 
pedestal  in  the  world. 

The  House  of  Representatives  was  a  forum  sin- 
gularly suited  to  his  powers.  It  is  a  field  where  the 
faculties  are  subjected  to  the  severest  trial  and  where 
merit  alone  can  win.  It  has  an  atmosphere  and  a 
standard  all  its  own.  Its  vast  hall,  its  turbulent  roar, 
its  intolerance  of  fustian  or  feebleness,  its  quick  and 
remorseless  detection  of  sham  and  pretense,  all  im- 
pose a  test  which  nothing  but  substantial  ability  can 
endure.  It  must  be  conquered  or  captivated  or  gained 
through  its  sincere  respect.  It  enjoys  the  barbed 
shaft  of  sarcasm  which  pierces  the  hollow  shell  of 
cant  or  the  vivid  thunderbolt  of  invective  which  blasts 
the  hoary  forces  of  wrong.  It  is  enthralled  under  the 
magic  spell  of  the  true  orator  who  sets  logic  on  fire 


157 

with  passion  or  melts  the  cold  form  of  reason  with 
the  subdued  touch  of  tenderness.  It  appreciates  the 
comprehensive  knowledge  which,  without  grace  or 
adornment,  but  with  honesty  and  understanding,  il- 
luminates legislation  and  points  the  pathway  of  truth. 
But  it  is  only  by  masterfulness  in  one  form  or  another 
that  its  attention  can  be  held  or  its  leadership  at- 
tained. For  this  arena  of  political  gladiators  the 
earnest,  painstaking  and  persuasive  McKinley  was 
admirably  fitted.  He  was  a  patient  worker,  a  trench- 
ant debater  and  a  skillful  tactician. 

Joining  freely  in  the  conflicts  of  the  House,  he 
displayed  at  once  such  force  and  such  chivalry  that  he 
left  the  sense  of  a  foeman  worthy  of  the  best  steel, 
and  no  opponent  was  envenomed  because  "still  rankled 
in  his  side  the  fatal  dart."  He  became  master  of  all 
the  moods  and  methods  of  the  House.  He  had  in  his 
own  knowledge  and  superb  tact  the  clew  of  its  laby- 
rinths, and  he  could  guide  through  their  most  tortuous 
ways  as  surely  as  Theseus  tracked  the  labyrinth  of 
old  with  the  thread  of  Ariadne.  During  the  fourteen 
years  of  his  service  he  steadily  grew  in  influence  and 
rank,  and  at  last  became  the  acknowledged  leader  and 
powerful  moulder  of  politics.  His  conspicuous  cham- 
pionship of  protection  led  to  a  reproach  that  he  was 
a  man  of  one  idea,  a  reproach  which  shriveled  and 
faded  in  the  grandeur  of  his  later  work,  but  never  just 
even  when  originally  made.  It  was  his  duty  as  repre- 
sentative to  deal  with  many  questions;  as  Chairman 
of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  and  leader  of 
the  House  he  spoke  on  many  subjects,  and  he  never 
spoke  save  to  illuminate. 

If  he  early  determined  to  choose  one  issue  of  com- 
manding importance  and  make  himself  master  of  that, 


158 

it  was  only  an  illustration  of  his  native  sagacity  and 
of  his  strong  conviction.  In  devoting  himself  to  the 
protection  of  home  industries  he  became  the  chief  ex- 
ponent of  a  policy  that  was  the  battle  gage  of  parties 
and  vitally  connected  with  the  welfare  of  the  people. 
The  McKinley  law  was  the  natural  evolution  of  condi- 
tions ;  but  it  bore  his  name  because  he  had  early  fore- 
seen developments  and  put  himself  in  line  to  seize  the 
opportunity.  It  passed  only  on  the  eve  of  the  Con- 
gressional elections;  it  had  no  adequate  trial;  there 
was  no  time  for  correct  understanding;  the  general 
political  sky  was  darkened  by  untoward  circumstances, 
and  all  the  threatening  signs  together  brought  dis- 
aster. In  that  defeat  McKinley  went  down  for  the 
moment — due  however,  more  to  the  change  of  his  dis- 
trict than  to  the  general  adverse  current.  But  it  was 
only  for  a  moment,  and  in  that  moment  of  darkness 
his  conviction  and  his  courage  blazed  like  an  oriflamme. 
For,  though  many  doubted  and  hesitated,  he  did 
not  quiver!  In  that  hour  of  gloom  and  storm  of  op- 
position others  faltered,  but  McKinley  never!  He  did 
not  droop  his  banner  a  single  inch,  but  held  it  aloft 
with  unwavering  fidelity  and  repledged  devotion. 

"So  spake  the  seraph  Abdiel,  faithful,  found 
Among  the  faithless,  faithful  only  he." 

His  trumpet  blast  soon  rallied  the  broken  columns. 
Every  circumstance  conspired  to  vindicate  and  re- 
establish him  more  strongly  than  ever.  He  was  chosen 
Governor  of  Ohio.  The  McKinley  law  was  overthrown, 
but  depression  deepened  around  the  whole  horizon. 
Throughout  the  country  the  awakening  people  began 
to  call  for  the  rejected  leader.  The  stone  which  the 
builders  refused  became  the  head  of  the  corner.  He 


159 

went  over  the  land  and  across  the  continent,  and  his 
engaging  personality  and  rare  powers  of  oratory  won 
their  persuasive  way.  He  had  every  element  of  popu- 
lar winsomeness.  A  face  of  sweetness  and  light ;  deep- 
set  and  piercing  eyes  under  a  Websterian  brow ;  a  per- 
sonal fascination  which  took  hold  of  all  who  came 
within  its  influence;  a  voice  sympathetic,  resonant  and 
full  of  vibrant  melody ;  a  style  of  limpid  clearness  and 
simplicity,  tipped  at  times  with  the  divine  flame  of 
eloquence;  and  almost  unrivaled  power  of  seizing  the 
central  and  controlling  facts  and  presenting  them  with 
sharp,  luminous  and  convincing  force;  the  allied  fac- 
ulty of  clarifying  and  crystallizing  a  truth  or  an  argu- 
ment on  a  phrase  or  an  epigram;  the  capacity  to  take 
the  tumbler  from  the  table  on  the  platform  and  make 
it  the  illustration,  lucent  as  the  sunbeam,  of  a  theory 
or  a  policy  so  that  the  simplest  child  could  understand 
and  the  memory  carried  it  forever;  and  over  all  that 
subtle  and  indescribable  charm  of  sincerity  and  suavity 
which  is  irresistible — such  were  the  rare  attributes 
which  swayed  and  carried  vast  multitudes. 

He  thus  naturally  and  inevitably  became  the 
Presidential  candidate.  His  extraordinary  campaign 
was  to  many  of  his  countrymen  a  revelation  of  un- 
suspected versatility  and  resource.  He  did  not  leave 
his  home  for  any  tour,  but  tens  of  thousands  went  to 
him  in  multiplied  delegations,  representing  every  guild 
and  every  interest;  and  he  welcomed  them  through 
days  and  weeks  and  months  of  hourly  speeches  so  apt, 
so  varied,  so  terse  and  cogent,  so  illustrative  and  sug- 
gestive, that  they  not  only  baffled  criticism  but  formed 
the  impregnable  bulwark  of  his  own  canvass.  His 
championship  of  protection  nominated  him.  But 
events  had  brought  the  currency  question  to  a  crucial 


1GO 

position.  On  this  question  there  had  been  serious  dif- 
ferences in  his  own  party,  and  their  reconcilement  was 
indispensable  to  united  strength  and  sure  success.  Mc- 
Kinley's  fidelity  to  sound  currency  had  never  been 
doubtful,  but  he  was  subjected  to  some  reproach  be- 
cause he  maintained  a  degree  of  reserve  while  the 
process  of  fusing  the  discordant  elements  was  going 
on.  It  was  an  exemplification  of  his  tactful  method 
of  accomplishing  a  great  end  through  conciliatory 
means.  Far  better  than  his  well-meaning  critics  he 
knew  that  a  serious  rupture  or  division  would  be  fatal, 
and  that  judicious  approach  would  bring  a  satisfactory 
alignment.  When  his  policy  had  welded  the  party  to- 
gether and  the  time  had  come,  he  spoke  in  clarion  tones 
and  his  leadership  on  the  later  of  the  two  great  issues 
was  as  vigorous  and  ringing  as  it  had  always  been  on 
the  earlier. 

His  first  act  as  President  attested  the  depth  of  his 
convictions  and  his  self-reliant  judgment.  He  in- 
stantly recalled  Congress  and  the  country  to  the  Mc- 
Kinley  policy!  There  had  been  a  long  period  of  busi- 
ness depression  and  stagnation.  Men  might  differ  as 
to  the  cause — the  President  believed  he  knew  the 
remedy.  It  was  the  restoration  of  confidence  and 
credit  and  enterprise  which  would  again  set  the  wheels 
of  industry  in  motion.  Against  all  traditions,  with 
the  self  confidence  of  profound  earnestness,  he  assem- 
bled Congress  in  extra  session ;  he  invoked  its  exclusive 
devotion  to  the  single  object  of  its  unusual  meeting; 
and  before  the  first  summer  of  his  administration  had 
passed,  his  faith  and  his  measures  had  started  the 
country  on  a  new  development  of  activity  which,  wide- 
ning and  extending  as  it  advanced,  ushered  in  the  most 


161 

splendid  era  of  industrial  growth  and  commercial  ex- 
pansion the  world  has  ever  seen ! 

With  restored  prosperity  and  business  stability 
thus  assured,  as  the  foundation  of  all  advance,  he  was 
ready  for  other  questions.  The  long-smouldering 
wrongs  of  Cuba,  now  bursting  into  full  flame,  had 
profoundly  stirred  the  country.  The  American  people 
could  no  longer  silence  conscience  with  mere  protest. 
Had  not  Gladstone  thundered  against  the  atrocities  of 
Bulgaria?  Had  not  the  Christian  world  held  up  its 
hands  in  impotent  horror  at  the  ghastly  but  sporadic 
infamies  in  Armenia?  But  these  monstrous  wrongs 
were  far  off.  The  continuous  crimes  in  Cuba,  not  less 
hideous  and  growing  to  appalling  proportions,  were  at 
our  very  door.  How  could  the  impulse  of  humanity 
or  the  instinct  of  self-protection  look  on  in  passive 
abhorrence?  For  years  we  had  offered  verbal  remon- 
strance and  done  nothing.  The  time  had  come  for 
action.  The  cumulating  records  of  cruelty  wrought  the 
country  to  the  highest  pitch  of  indignation.  In  the 
midst  of  this  swelling  tide  of  feeling  the  destruction 
of  a  battle-ship  in  the  harbor  of  Havana  and  the  loss 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  brave  American  sailors  in- 
flamed the  public  temper  to  white  heat,  and  all  over 
the  land  went  forth  the  ominous  "Remember  the 
Maine!"  Everywhere — in  Congress  and  in  the  coun- 
try— the  cry  was  for  war! 

No  one  who  did  not  see  the  President  at  close  hand 
during  those  stormy  and  trying  days  could  measure 
the  greatness  of  his  spirit  or  the  courage  of  his  pur- 
pose. Of  all  men  in  the  land  he  was  the  coolest,  the 
calmest  and  the  most  clear-sighted.  Profoundly  moved, 
anxious  beyond  all  expression,  he  was,  with  his  waking 
hours  and  his  sleepless  couch  filled  with  brooding  care, 


162 

but  tranquil,  self-contained,  sure  of  his  own  lofty  and 
unselfish  aim.  It  were  easy  then  to  lead  the  way  in 
passion  for  war.  It  needed  only  to  ride  the  tempest 
and  be  borne  along  by  the  swift  and  turbid  current. 
There  was  everything  in  such  yielding  complaisance 
to  appeal  to  selfish  ambition.  War  is  full  of  glory. 
This  war  was  certain  to  be  triumphant.  Success  in 
war  is  the  sure  passport  to  fame  and  power.  It  would 
inevitably  bring  enlarged  domain,  and  his  would  be  the 
honor.  Beyond  all,  this  was  a  war  with  a  righteous 
cause  and  a  just  object,  as  righteous  and  just  as  ever 
impelled  men  to  take  up  arms.  But  there  was  another 
side.  War  at  the  best  has  its  costly  sacrifices.  It 
makes  widows  and  orphans ;  it  brings  tears  to  the  eyes 
of  the  mothers,  and  fills  households  with  mourning. 
From  all  this  sadder  side  the  great  and  gentle  soul  of 
William  McKinley  recoiled.  Not  for  him  the  pathway 
of  personal  ambition  strewn  with  the  bloody  sacrifices 
of  his  people.  Not  for  him  the  mingled  glory  and 
misery  of  war,  however  just,  unless  it  were  made  clear 
that  its  rightful  and  necessary  purpose  could  not  be 
accomplished  through  peaceful  measures. 

He  did  not  despair  of  such  a  pacific  and  acceptable 
solution.  In  his  purpose  of  rescuing  Cuba  he  never 
faltered.  In  more  sober  understanding  and  aim  he 
shared  the  hot  determination  of  the  country  that  the 
intolerable  wrongs  in  the  unhappy  isle  must  cease ;  he 
had  reiterated  the  protests  of  other  Presidents,  and,  as 
the  offenses  grew,  had  gone  farther  in  action;  but  he 
still  hoped  and  believed  that  the  redemption  could  be 
effected  without  the  dread  necessity  of  war.  With  this 
conviction  he  judiciously  moderated  and  restrained  the 
impetuous  ardor  of  Congress,  and,  man  of  the  people 
as  he  was,  stood  undaunted  while  the  storm  of  popular 


163 

clamor  raged  about  him.  The  world  does  not  yet  know 
the  full  extent  of  the  effort  he  made  to  save  Cuba  and 
at  the  same  time  avert  war.  For  sixty,  days  he  held 
back  an  excited  and  impatient  country.  With  one  hand 
he  curbed  his  own  impulsive  people  and  with  the  other 
he  sought  to  lead  a  proud-spirited  Power  up  to  such 
concessions  as  would  alone  render  peace  possible.  The 
conscience,  the  courage  and  the  steadfastness  of  that 
joint  undertaking  cannot  easily  be  overstated.  It  must 
rank  with  the  great  acts  of  moral  heroism  among  the 
rulers  of  men.  But  it  was  not  met  with  the  same  in- 
genuous spirit;  events  outran  every  plan;  the  mighty 
issues  hastened  to  their  deadly  grapple,  and  the  war 
was  on.  Once  decreed,  it  was  fought  with  the  utmost 
vigor  and  power  as  the  most  humane  mandate.  Our 
arms  were  triumphant  on  sea  and  on  land.  Our  navy, 
always  great  in  action,  repeated  and  added  fresh  lustre 
to  its  earlier  glories.  The  army  was  rapidly  organized, 
and  on  new  fields,  under  tropic  skies  with  unwonted 
experiences,  separated  by  half  the  girdle  of  the  globe, 
it  exhibited  the  eager  spirit  and  unquailing  courage  of 
the  American  soldier.  It  is  but  just  to  say  that  not 
only  in  the  general  direction,  but  particularly  in  the 
culminating  and  crucial  hour  of  the  struggle,  when 
large  consequences  hung  on  grave  questions  in  the 
field,  the  President  was  literally  the  commander-in- 
chief ;  and  when  his  judgment  was  vindicated  by  the 
result  of  his  orders,  with  characteristic  generosity  he 
discountenanced  any  ascription  of  the  credit  which  was 
rightfully  his,  lest  it  might  in  the  slightest  degree  de- 
tract from  the  well-won  laurels  of  the  generals  he  de- 
lighted to  honor.  A  hundred  days,  forever  emblazoned 
with  the  names  of  Manila  and  Santiago,  closed  the 
war  and  placed  the  Republic  in  a  new  position  before 


164 

the  world.  The  President  then  confronted  the  still 
more  difficult  problems  of  peace.  Under  the  condi- 
tions its  issues  were  more  completely  in  his  hands  than 
those  of  war.  It  was  for  him  to  decide  the  terms  of 
peace,  subject  to  the  final  ratification  of  the  treaty, 
and  with  the  reasonable  certainty  that  the  terms 
agreed  on  by  the  two  Governments  and  formally  em- 
bodied in  the  treaty  would,  unless  clearly  repugnant 
to  the  general  sense,  be  accepted  in  the  end.  The 
gravity  and  the  magnitude  of  that  duty  are  manifest. 
It  involved  the  momentous  decision  of  the  character 
and  extent  of  the  territorial  acquisition  to  be  made. 
And  beyond  the  primary  question  of  expansion,  it  in- 
volved the  stupendous  problem  of  the  future  disposi- 
tion, relations  and  government  of  the  territory  thus 
acquired. 

As  to  the  islands  of  the  Carribean  the  course  was 
clear.  Porto  Rico  was  plainly  to  be  ceded  and  the 
cession  was  granted  and  accepted  with  little  dispute. 
Cuba  was  to  be  made  free  under  the  guardianship  of 
the  United  States  until  prepared  for  full  independence. 
But  what  of  the  Philippines  ?  Was  our  flag  to  remain 
in  those  remote  seas?  Was  it  to  float  only  over  a 
naval  station  or  over  a  broader  area?  If  we  were  to 
gain  a  territorial  foothold,  was  the  vast  archipelago 
to  be  taken  in  part  or  in  whole?  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  the  answer  to  that  tremendous  question, 
with  all  its  import  for  the  destiny  of  our  country, 
rested  on  the  single  voice  of  William  McKinley.  It 
was  for  him  to  make  the  first  guiding  determination, 
and  he  had  acquired  such  authority  with  the  people, 
such  general  confidence  was  felt  in  his  judgment,  that 
whether  the  conclusion  had  been  in  favor  of  holding 
on  or  of  letting  go  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 


165 

in  the  plastic  and  formative  stage  of  public  opinion 
then  his  decision  would  have  been  accepted. 

It  is  difficult  to  recall  another  time  in  all  our  his- 
tory since  the  organization  of  the  Government  when 
a  decision  of  such  pregnant  and  far-reaching  conse- 
quences rested  in  the  hollow  of  a  single  hand  save 
once.  In  Washington's  second  administration  the  new- 
born nation  was  in  fever  of  tumult  from  the  infection 
of  the  French  Revolution.  France  had  been  our  ally 
in  our  own  struggle  for  liberty.  She  was  now  with 
ensanguined  banner  proclaiming  the  new  crusade  of 
the  "rights  of  man."  Jefferson  had  returned  from  her 
soil  imbued  with  her  extreme  ideas.  He  found  a  young 
and  ardent  people  all  aflame  with  enthusiasm  for  the 
tricolor  and  burning  with  passion  against  a  recent 
and  still  unfriendly  foe.  Clubs  sprang  into  being  all 
over  the  land  with  the  cockade  on  their  hats  and  the 
cry  of  fraternity  on  their  lips.  The  British  Orders  in 
Council  intensified  the  public  feeling.  Congress  an- 
swered with  the  embargo  act  and  began  to  prepare  for 
war.  Had  there  been  any  leader  at  the  head  of  the 
State  less  wise  and  commanding  than  Washington, 
the  nation,  still  in  its  infancy  and  still  enfeebled  with 
its  exhausting  struggle  for  independence,  would  have 
madly  taken  up  arms  again.  But  the  equipoise  and 
authority  of  the  peerless  chief  stayed  the  uplifted  arm, 
sent  John  Jay  to  London  on  a  special  mission  of  peace, 
carried  against  violent  opposition  a  treaty  unpopular 
but  vindicated  by  time,  and  successfully  piloted  the  Re- 
public through  a  crisis  of  difficulty  and  danger. 

There  have  been  other  times  when  great  decisions 
were  taken,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  there  has  been 
another  time  save  that  now  in  question,  when  so  much 
depended  on  the  single  act  of  one  man,  unless,  to  name 


166 

an  instance  of  a  different  kind,  we  except  the  act  of 
John  Adams  in  appointing  John  Marshall  Chief  Justice 
of  the  United  States.  President  McKinley  did  not  fail 
to  appreciate  the  importance  and  the  gravity  of  the 
question  which  practically  rested  on  his  sole  deter- 
mination. He  saw,  no  one  better,  that  the  acquisition 
of  extended  territory  and  alien  peoples  in  remote 
climes  would  be  a  new  departure  for  the  Republic 
and  entail  problems  of  government  of  the  most  deli- 
cate and  complex  character.  He  saw,  on  the  other 
hand,  no  one  more  clearly,  that  the  withdrawal  of 
American  authority  and  care,  when  other  authority 
and  care  had  been  extinguished,  would  leave  an  un- 
prepared people  in  a  helpless  condition  and  would  be 
a  desertion  of  a  solemn  obligation  which  events  had 
imposed  upon  us. 

In  this  conflict  of  opposing  views  he  had  no  real 
guide  but  his  own  sure  instinct  and  his  own  sense  of 
duty.     He  had  his  counselors  in  Cabinet,  in  Congress 
and  in  Peace  Commission,  but  the  ultimate  responsi- 
bility was  his.    Did  he  ask  public  opinion? — but  public 
opinion  waited  for  him.    It  was  a  decision  for  the  soli- 
tude and  meditation  of  the  statesman's  closet,  and 
there  he  took  it  for  self-communion  and  for  the  higher 
communion  with  the  Giver  of  All  Wisdom,  who  was 
his  daily  guide  and  ever-present  help  in  time  of  trou- 
ble.    In  reaching  his  conclusion  there  was  one  con- 
trolling force.     He  was  not  blind  to  the  commercial 
opportunities  which  had  been  suddenly  unveiled.    With 
the  prophetic  eye  of  faith  he  could  discern  in  the  com- 
ing years  the  argosies  of  treasure  which  through  the 
opening  of  the  Orient  would  expand  and  enrich  Ameri- 
can trade.     But  deeply  interested  as  he  was  in  this 
development,  it  was  not  the  animating  impulse  of  his 


167 

action.  The  one  overmastering  influence  in  deciding 
his  course  was  not  the  spirit  of  territorial  aggrandize- 
ment, not  the  acceptance  of  commercial  opportunity, 
but  his  profound  conviction  of  duty  to  the  rude  peo- 
ples whom  the  course  of  events  had  placed  in  our 
keeping.  He  felt  that  to  abandon  them  under  such 
circumstances  would  be  recreancy  to  a  sacred  trust. 
With  his  robust  Americanism  he  believed  that  Ameri- 
can free  institutions  are  the  best  in  the  world,  and  he 
could  not  conceive  that  the  freedom  and  hope  of  our 
flag  would  be  anything  else  than  a  blessing  to  the 
peoples  who  should  come  under  the  protection  and  the 
inspiration  of  its  shining  folds. 

His,  then,  was  the  authority,  his  the  responsibility, 
his  the  decision  in  what,  let  us  fully  recognize  it,  was 
a  turning  point  in  American  history  and  a  new  epoch 
in  the  course  of  civilization.  If  there  had  been  nothing 
else,  this  great  act  alone  was  sufficient  to  give  him  a 
sure  niche  in  the  Temple  of  Fame.  We  do  not  under- 
take to  pass  upon  the  questions  of  the  future;  but 
whatever  may  be  its  course  it  is  certain  that  the  free- 
dom which  has  spread  its  glorious  light  in  the  Philip- 
pine Islands  can  never  be  dimmed.  The  Filipinos,  now 
rescued,  may  well  say,  with  the  hero  of  Italy,  "We  had 
rather  take  one  step  forward  and  die,  than  one  step 
backward  and  live."  It  was  William  McKinley  whc 
lifted  them  out  of  the  thraldom  and  darkness  of  three 
hundred  years  into  the  liberty  and  enlightenment  of 
the  twentieth  century;  and,  whatever  the  vicissitudes 
of  circumstance,  it  is  sure  that  in  the  coming  time  the 
millions  of  dark-visaged  and  disenthralled  people  and 
their  tens  of  millions  of  descendants  will  recognize 
him  as  the  blacks  of  America  recognize  Lincoln,  and 
that  not  only  in  the  stately  squares  of  Manila,  but  in 


168 

the  remoter  provinces  of  Luzon  and  among  the  dusky 
Viscayans  of  Cebu  and  Samar,  then  advanced  in  civili- 
zation, will  be  found  rising  in  honor  the  worthy  monu- 
ments of  bronze  or  of  granite,  with  the  benignant  face 
and  figure  so  well  known  to  us,  which  shall  commem- 
orate the  great  Liberator. 

The  first  summer  of  the  President  had  been  given 
to  the  restoration  of  the  conditions  of  prosperity;  the 
second  to  the  war  with  Spain;  the  third  to  the  insur- 
rectionary troubles  in  the  Philippines;  and  the  fourth, 
in  the  year  of  his  campaign  for  re-election,  was  ab- 
sorbed with  the  sudden  and  appalling  outbreak  in 
China.  That  startling  assault  on  civilization  served 
to  show  that  the  United  States  had  taken  its  place  at 
the  council  table  of  the  nations.  The  establishment  of 
our  authority  in  the  East  gave  us  a  recognized  voice 
in  dealing  with  the  issues  of  the  great  Eastern  Em- 
pire ;  the  presence  of  our  forces  in  the  Philippines  per- 
mitted the  quick  transfer  of  a  fair  contingent  to  the 
new  scene  of  action.  We  were  there  by  right,  and  we 
were  there  with  visible  strength.  In  facing  this  trying 
and  unforseen  exigency,  for  which  there  was  no  pre- 
cedent and  no  guide,  the  President  evinced  the  easy 
assumption  of  responsibility  and  direction  to  which 
the  large  experience  of  four  years,  with  the  prepar- 
ation of  twenty  years  behind  it,  had  brought  him. 
Under  his  guidance  the  United  States  proceeded  with- 
out hesitation  and  without  truculence,  acting  with 
other  nations  when  their  policy  suited  it,  asserting  its 
independent  judgment  when  occasion  required  it,  en- 
tangling itself  with  none  and  friendly  with  all. 

In  two  directions  at  least  the  United  States  took 
the  distinct  lead.  It  was  foremost  in  insisting  that, 
despite  the  furious  fighting  and  the  dreadful  conditions 


169 

at  Peking,  there  was  not  a  state  of  war,  and  thus  in 
localizing  the  conflict.  It  was  no  less  strenuous  in  up- 
holding the  integrity  of  the  Empire  and  in  moderating 
the  terms  of  settlement.  Whatever  differences  may 
remain  on  controverted  questions  there  is  universal 
concurrence  that  our  Government  handled  the  Chinese 
complication  in  a  masterful  and  faultless  manner,  and 
emerged  from  the  arduous  ordeal  with  increased 
prestige  and  influence  throughout  the  world. 

At  last  it  seemed  that  for  the  President  a  time  of 
tranquillity  and  measurable  repose  and  well-earned 
enjoyment  of  his  great  honors  had  come.  He  had  been 
re-elected  with  every  mark  of  the  high  confidence  of  his 
countrymen.  His  great  achievements  were  secure, 
and  his  fixed  and  well-defined  policies  remained  only 
to  be  fulfilled  on  the  lines  he  had  clearly  traced.  He 
had  solved  and  clarified  the  intricacies  of  the  Cuban 
maze  with  a  chart  and  charter  which  determined  the 
future,  and  to  which,  without  debate  and  without  op- 
position, he  had  pledged  both  parties  in  Congress  with 
a  consummate  adroitness  and  skill  never  surpassed  in 
all  our  legislative  history.  With  a  sincere  and  pro- 
found devotion  to  American  traditions  and  with  a 
directness  which  admitted  of  no  question,  he  had 
stilled  the  rising  sentiment  for  a  third  term.  He  had 
with  his  noble  magnanimity  and  wisdom  assuaged  the 
strife  of  sections,  and  brought  North  and  South  to- 
gether in  such  fraternal  concord  as  they  had  not  felt 
since  they  shed  their  blood  side  by  side  at  Bunker  Hill 
and  Yorktown.  With  high  hope  and  exultant  joy  he 
had  traversed  the  continent  amid  the  acclaims  of  an 
enthusiastic  people.  There  on  the  further  shore,  look- 
ing out  through  the  Golden  Gate  on  the  great  ocean 
which  his  work  had  made  an  American  sea,  he  was 


170 

called  to  his  deepest  trial,  as  day  after  day  and  night 
after  night  he  trod  the  hazy  and  mysterious  border- 
land of  eternity  with  the  tender  companion  of  his 
chivalrous  and  matchless  devotion,  while  the  whole 
nation,  with  hushed  breath  and  affectionate  sympathy 
and  constant  prayer,  followed  him  in  his  long  and  lov- 
ing vigil.  Again  alone  in  his  never-ceasing  faith,  his 
cup  of  joy  was  again  filled  to  overflowing  as  the  frail 
thread  strengthened  into  the  silken  cord,  and  thence- 
forward the  sun  shone  with  new  radiance  for  him  as, 
after  the  splendor  and  stress  and  cloud,  it  approached 
the  mellow  sweetness  of  promised  peace  and  rest. 

He  went  to  Buffalo,  and  amid  the  brilliant  sur- 
roundings of  its  beautiful  Exposition  he  made  the  im- 
pressive speech  which,  in  its  elevation  of  spirit,  in  its 
clearness  of  vision  and  in  its  breadth  of  statesmanship, 
is  his  fit  legacy  to  the  American  people.  He  had  re- 
nounced no  article  of  his  life-long  creed.  He  only  saw 
the  consummation  of  the  policy  he  had  sustained,  only 
the  expected  results  he  had  done  his  part  in  bringing 
about.  In  his  view  reciprocity  was  but  the  ripened 
fruitage  of  the  harvest  of  protection,  and  when  his  un- 
faltering faith  and  patient  labor  were  rewarded  by 
seeing  his  country  in  full  command  of  her  own  un- 
equalled market,  his  hopes  and  aspirations  naturally 
reached  out  to  the  extension  of  her  sceptre  in  the  ex- 
changes of  the  world. 

His  fate  on  the  day  following  this  final  speech 
gave  it  a  sanctity  commensurate  with  its  significance. 
If  he  was  great  in  life  he  was  sublime  in  death.  The 
cruel  shot  rang  with  horror  around  the  world.  His 
country  and  all  mankind  followed  the  changing  as- 
pects with  alternations  of  high  hope  and  of  deepest 
gloom.  But  through  all  the  fluctuations  of  that 


171 

anguishing  week,  whether  encouraged  by  the  highest 
human  skill  or  looking  through  the  open  portal  to  the 
eternal  morn,  he  and  he  alone  waited  with  unquail- 
ing  spirit,  with  serene  patience  and  with  crowning 
trust.  In  that  hour  he  rose  to  his  full  height.  What 
a  noble  exhibition  of  a  God-like  nature.  Would  you 
know  his  generosity? — recall  his  words  as  he  looked 
upon  the  miscreant,  "Don't  let  them  hurt  him."  Would 
you  understand  his  thoughtful  chivalry? — remember 
his  immediate  admonition,  "Do  not  let  them  alarm  my 
wife."  Would  you  appreciate  his  considerate  courtesy? 
—turn  to  his  fine  sense,  "I  am  sorry  that  the  Exposi- 
tion has  been  shadowed."  Would  you  measure  his 
moral  grandeur? — dwell  upon  that  final  utterance  of 
sublime  submission,  "It  is  God's  way;  His  will,  not 
ours,  be  done." 

If  I  may  return  for  a  moment  to  Motley's  de- 
lineation of  William  of  Orange,  he  portrays  that  great 
leader  as  "certainly  possessed  of  perfect  courage  at 
last."  The  fibre  of  William  McKinley,  gentle  and  sup- 
ple in  its  nature,  was  developed  by  experience  and  trial 
into  a  sinewy  and  scathless  strength.  He  was  called 
amiable,  but  when  in  the  discussion  of  the  terms  of 
the  Protocol,  conducted  by  himself,  a  suggestion  was 
made  of  his  proverbial  amiability,  the  French  Ambas- 
sador quickly  answered,  "Mr.  President,  you  are  as 
firm  as  a  rock."  He  could  and  did  deliberate  when  time 
permitted,  and  when  decision  was  required  he  could 
decide  with  lightning  flash.  If  he  "kept  his  ear  to  the 
ground,"  as  the  phrase  went,  it  was  not  only  to  hear 
but  to  know  how  to  guide — it  was  not  to  listen  to  com- 
mand, but  to  understand  how  to  lead.  He  appreciated 
with  Edmund  Burke  that  "he  who  would  lead  must 
sometimes  follow,"  and  sometimes  when  he  seemed  to 


172 

follow  he  had  so  dexterously  prepared  the  way  that  in 
reality  he  led.  He  incarnated  the  instincts  of  the 
people  and  refined  them  to  their  best  expression.  He 
firmly  trod  the  earth  while  his  spirit  soared  to  the 
skies.  He  was  great  in  deeds  and  great  in  speech,  for 
his  deeds  shaped  history  and  his  words  swayed  the 
minds  and  the  hearts  of  men.  From  the  beginning  of 
his  career  he  constantly  advanced  in  public  esteem,  and 
as  steadily  grew  in  wisdom  for  the  successive  emergen- 
cies and  problems  which  confronted  him. 

There  are  three  distinct  and  transcendent  epochs 
in  the  development  of  the  American  nation — epochs  un- 
like any  others  and  in  importance  and  determining  in- 
fluence far  overshadowing  all  other  parts  of  our  his- 
tory. First  is  the  creating  period ;  second,  the  redeem- 
ing period,  and  the  third,  the  expanding  period.  Each 
of  these  moulding  periods  had  its  great  leader  rising 
above  all  others,  divinely  endowed  and  divinely  called 
for  its  needs  and  its  mission. 

The  revolutionary  and  constructive  period  was  re- 
splendent with  a  matchless  group  of  extraordinary 
men.  Hamilton  had  consummate  creative  genius  and 
insight;  Jefferson  had  unrivaled  political  instinct  and 
mastery;  Adams  had  fervid  eloquence  and  intrepid 
faith ;  Franklin  had  philosophic  penetration  and  grasp ; 
Madison  had  practical  skill  and  sure  judgment;  Jay 
had  lofty  purity  and  elevation  of  soul.  But  great  as 
they  were  in  their  individual  and  their  united  strength, 
they  all  bowed  to  the  unquestioned  ascendency  of  the 
overtowering  chief,  whose  awe-inspiring  personality 
dominated  every  council,  whose  lofty  wisdom  guided 
every  policy  and  whose  majestic  character  was  the  rock 
of  the  national  faith. 


173 

In  the  same  way  the  redeeming  period  presented  a 
brilliant  galaxy.  There  was  Seward,  with  his  long 
leadership,  his  acute  vision  and  his  trained  statecraft ; 
there  was  Chase,  with  his  robust  vigor  and  his  eager 
ambition ;  there  was  Stanton,  with  his  impetuous  ardor 
and  tireless  energy  and  organizing  genius ;  there  was 
Sumner,  with  his  proud  and  conscious  scholarship, 
his  impatient  intensity  and  his  moral  force ;  there  was 
Douglas,  who  was  the  Rupert  of  debate  and  the  stormy 
petrel  of  our  most  turbulent  politics ;  there  was  Grant, 
with  his  conquering  sword  in  the  field,  and  Stevens, 
with  his  flaming  tongue  in  the  forum.  But  out  of  the 
West,  untrained  except  in  the  clash  of  stump  debate, 
untutored  save  in  the  self-communion  of  his  own  great 
soul,  came  the  God-given  chieftain  to  whom  the  ac- 
knowledged princes  of  statesmanship  and  oratory  were 
fain  to  yield  the  sceptre  of  unchallenged  leadership,  and 
whose  indomitable  faith  and  exalted  inspiration  and 
heroic  devotion  and  almost  divine  prescience  through 
the  mighty  struggle  for  the  Union  have  not  been  sur- 
passed in  all  the  long  and  glowing  story  of  liberty's 
march  and  humanity's  progress. 

And  so  in  the  expanding  period,  the  halo  of  which 
is  still  over  us,  there  have  been  strong  leaders  in  the 
council  and  in  the  forum;  but  towering  over  all  was 
the  paramount  figure  who  will  ever  stand  out  as  the 
dominant  influence  of  this  epoch  of  our  national  his- 
tory. He  was  supreme  in  moral  greatness.  He  was 
foremost  not  simply  because  he  was  the  titular  chief 
but  because  in  clean  insight,  in  sure  judgment,  in  the 
consummate  faculty  of  knowing  what  to  do  and  how 
to  do  it,  he  was  the  undisputed  master  of  all.  The  pre- 
eminence of  his  political  genius  was  universally  recog- 
nized. He  lived  at  a  time  when  in  its  onward  develop- 


174 

merit  it  was  his  fortune  to  lead  the  Republic  to  the  at- 
tainment of  its  material  independence  and  power ;  and 
then  when  that  policy  had  reached  its  fruition  it  was  no 
less  his  good  fortune  to  lead  it  along  the  new  pathways 
of  greatness  and  glory.  If  his  work  was  not  finished, 
it  was  so  far  advanced  and  so  well  marked  out  that  it 
only  remains  to  follow  the  course  he  blazed.  His 
achievements  are  sure  and  his  impress  on  the  age  is 
indelible.  We  feel  our  personal  loss;  the  Republic 
mourns  the  President  best  beloved  of  all  while  he  lived ; 
but  for  him  history  is  perfect,  and  the  flawless  pages  of 
immortality  are  opened  to  be  marred  never  more. 

+      +      + 

WILLIAM  McKINLEY 
In  Senate,  March  5,  1902. 
Mr.  Grady  offered  the  following  resolution: 
Resolved   (the  Assembly  concurring),    That  the 
sincere  thanks  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New 
York  are  tendered  to  the  Hon.  Charles  Emory  Smith 
for  his  masterly  address  and  graceful  and  appropriate 
tribute  to  the  personal  virtues  and  great  public  serv- 
ices of  the  late  President,  William  McKinley,  at  the 
Legislative  memorial  exercises,  held  at  the  State  Capi- 
tol on  the  evening  of  March  4,  1902. 

The  President  put  the  question  whether  the  Sen- 
ate would  agree  to  said  resolution,  and  it  was  decided 
in  the  affirmative. 

Ordered,  That  Clerk  deliver  said  resolution  to  the 
Assembly  and  request  their  concurrence  therein. 

The  Assembly  returned  the  above  resolution,  with 
a  message  that  the  Assembly  have  concurred  in  the 
passage  of  the  same. 


175 

IN  MEMORIAM 
In  Assembly,  March  5,  1902. 

Mr.  Palmer  offered  for  the  consideration  of  the 
House  a  resolution,  in  the  words  following: 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Assembly  be 
extended  to  Superintendent  of  Public  Buildings,  H.  H. 
Bender,  for  the  splendid  decoration  of  the  Assembly 
Chamber  for  the  McKinley  memorial  exercises. 

Mr.  Speaker  put  the  question  whether  the  House 
would  agree  to  said  resolution,  and  it  was  determined 
in  the  affirmative. 


Courtesy  Baker  Art  Gallery, 
Columbus,  Ohio. 


THE  STATUE  OF  WILLIAM  McKINLEY, 

COLUMBUS,   OHIO. 


ADDRESS  DELIVERED   AT  THE  UNVEILING  OF 

THE  STATUE  OF  WILLIAM  McKINLEY, 

AT  COLUMBUS,  O.,  SEPT.  14,  1906 

WILLIAM  R.  DAY, 
JUSTICE  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT 

This  address  was  delivered  before  the  largest  throng 
ever  assembled  in  the  City  of  Columbus  and  in  the 
presence  of  State  and  National  celebrities. 

We  are  met  at  the  capital  of  his  native  State  to 
dedicate  this  beautiful  memorial  to  the  life  and  char- 
acter of  one  of  her  noblest  sons.  Time  and  place  fit 
the  occasion.  In  this  city  William  McKinley  passed 
four  years  as  Governor  of  the  State,  years  of  study  and 
growth,  as  his  public  utterances  of  that  period  abund- 
antly show.  Believing  in  the  supremacy  of  the  Nation 
in  affairs  of  state  which  the  Constitution  has  placed 
under  Federal  control,  he  was  ever  loyal  to  his  native 
State  and  jealous  of  her  reputation  and  standing  in 
the  family  of  the  Union.  Born  upon  the  soil  of  Ohio, 
he  grew  to  manhood  under  the  fostering  care  of  her  in- 
stitutions. Upon  her  friendly  bosom  among  kindred 
and  friends  whom  he  loved  and  cherished,  his  sacred 
ashes  will  rest,  and,  overlooking  his  old  home,  a  Na- 
tional memorial  will  attest  the  love  and  gratitude  of  his 
countrymen. 

Ohio  has  been  prolific  of  great  names  in  peace  and 
war.  No  native  of  the  State  but  feels  a  just  pride  in 
the  achievements  of  her  sons.  It  were  useless  in  this 
presence  to  call  the  roll  of  her  illustrious  dead.  The 
Nation  knows  it.  When  Ohio  shall  again  be  called 
upon  to  present  her  jewels  to  the  State,  there  will  be 
found  within  the  circle  the  noble  face  and  figure  of  the 
latest  of  her  children  who  were  not  born  to  die. 

179 


180 

It  is  fitting  that  with  such  memorials  as  this  we 
perpetuate  the  names  and  fame  of  our  illustrious  dead. 
While  they  serve  to  recall  their  character  and  achieve- 
ments, they  are  also  object  lessons  to  the  living.  How 
many  a  youth,  as  he  looks  upon  the  manly  face  so  vivid- 
ly portrayed  by  the  sculptor,  and  reads  in  the  groups 
which  surround  this  statue  the  lesson  of  a  noble  life, 
will  be  stimulated  to  higher  endeavor  and  more  reso- 
lute purpose  to  achieve  an  honorable  success. 

William  McKinley,  boy  and  man,  was  a  type  of 
the  best  possibilities  of  American  life.  Born  neither 
to  riches  or  poverty,  he  was  fortunate  in  his  birth  and 
the  heritage  of  his  parentage.  Descended  from  that 
hardy,  vigorous  race  which  has  given  so  many  noble 
men  to  our  country,  he  was  early  taught  to  revere  God 
and  respect  the  rights  of  his  fellow-men.  His  pious 
mother,  many  of  whose  noble  traits  found  expression 
in  the  character  of  her  son,  hoped  he  might  follow  the 
ministry  of  the  church  which  was  hers  and  early  in 
life  became  his.  Although  he  was  destined  for  a  dif- 
ferent career,  he  never  forgot  or  departed  from  the 
lessons  of  simple  faith  and  upright  living  which  this 
noble  woman  taught  him,  hoping  that  some  day  he 
might  teach  them  to  others.  Every  day  of  his  life, 
whether  in  the  quiet  of  home,  or  on  the  eve  of  battle, 
or  when  pressed  with  burdens  seldom  borne  by  man  in 
the  great  affairs  of  state,  he  quietly  and  unostenta- 
tiously sought  help  and  guidance  from  on  high.  Un- 
faltering as  was  his  devotion  to  his  own  faith,  he  had 
the  broadest  toleration  for  the  views  of  others,  and 
freely  conceded  to  all  the  liberty  of  conscience  which 
he  claimed  for  himself,  numbering  among  his  friends 
men  of  all  creeds  and  shades  of  religious  belief. 


181 

Brought  into  early  contact  through  the  business 
of  his  father,  who  was  an  iron-master,  with  men  who 
toil  in  shop  and  factory,  he  early  conceived  a  strong 
sympathy  for  them,  and  became  an  ardent  advocate  of 
every  measure  which  he  believed  would  lead  to  the  bet- 
terment of  their  condition  and  give  to  them  a  greater 
share  of  the  comforts  of  living.  Later  he  expressed 
this  sympathy  and  his  belief  in  the  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  improved  conditions,  when  he  said : 

"The  labor  of  the  country  constitutes  its  strength 
and  its  wealth ;  and  the  better  that  labor  is  conditioned, 
the  higher  its  rewards,  the  wider  its  opportunities, 
and  the  greater  its  comforts  and  refinements,  the  more 
sacred  will  be  our  homes,  the  more  capable  will  be  our 
children  and  the  nobler  will  be  the  destiny  that  awaits 
us." 

From  the  school  he  heard  the  call  of  his  country 
to  her  sons,  and  at  once  stepped  into  the  ranks  as  a 
defender  of  the  Union.  His  associates  in  arms,  officers 
in  the  regiment,  included  such  lawyers  as  Hayes  and 
Matthews,  and  in  their  companionship,  while  a  valiant 
soldier,  he  determined  to  adopt  the  legal  profession  as 
his  calling,  should  he  survive  the  perils  of  war. 

He  missed  the  college  education  he  had  hoped  to 
acquire,  but  gained  the  benefit  in  the  formation  of 
character  which  comes  from  a  soldier's  life.  He  learned 
not  to  be  unduly  elated  by  success  or  depressed  by  de- 
feat. He  learned  to  help  others  bear  the  hardships  of 
march  and  camp. 

The  war  over,  he  was  fortunate  in  beginning  the 
preparation  for  his  calling  under  a  judge  distinguished 
for  his  learning  and  ability.  Admitted  to  practice  in 
the  Ohio  courts,  he  followed  a  beloved  sister  who  had 
located  in  Canton,  and  began  alone  the  struggle  for 


182 

business  and  livelihood.  His  opportunity  soon  came 
when  an  established  lawyer  called  upon  him  to  present 
a  cause  to  the  local  court.  With  a  night's  preparation, 
without  the  usual  apology  for  inexperience,  with  per- 
fect self-possession  and  courteous  manner  he  pre- 
sented his  first  argument  and  won  his  first  case.  For 
ten  years  he  steadily  pursued  his  calling,  always  cour- 
teous, always  prepared  and  thorough  in  the  presenta- 
tion of  his  cause.  He  surely  would  have  reached  high 
station  at  the  bar  had  not  people  called  him  to  their 
service  by  sending  him  to  the  National  Congress  the 
same  year  that  saw  his  old  commander  chosen  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  For  fourteen  years  he 
served  his  people  as  their  representative,  steadily  gain- 
ing in  weight  and  influence,  acquiring  recognition  for 
his  ability  as  a  debater  and  admiration  for  his  sterling 
qualities  of  character  as  a  man.  He  had  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  advocate  his  theory  of  taxation  for  the  pro- 
tection of  home  manufacturers  and  the  betterment  of 
American  labor,  this  service  culminating  in  the 
preparation  and  passage  of  the  tariff  measure  which 
bore  his  name. 

In  recording  his  devoted  service  to  the  cause  of 
protection  to  American  industries  we  are  apt  to  over- 
look the  fact  that  he  rendered  efficient  service  in  Con- 
gress as  a  member  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the 
House.  His  legal  training  stood  him  well  in  hand  in 
the  labors  of  that  important  committee.  His  argu- 
ments upon  legal  questions  before  the  House  are 
marked  by  clearness  of  expression  and  comprehen- 
sive grasp  of  his  subject,  leading  to  just  conclusions. 
He  made  notable  speeches  on  the  counting  of  a  quorum, 
the  election  of  a  successor  to  Garfield  in  the  House, 
and  a  system  of  arbitration  which  showed  familiarity 


183 

with  legal  principles  and  a  soundness  of  judgment 
creditable  to  the  profession  of  which  he  was  a  member. 
He  was  a  great  believer  in  the  value  of  a  legal  educa- 
tion and  the  training  which  comes  from  contests  of  the 
forum.  "Find  me  the  best  lawyer  who  will  undertake 
the  work"  was  not  infrequently  said  by  him  when  he 
was  considering  who  should  be  asked  to  undertake  im- 
portant service. 

A  temporary  revulsion  of  sentiment  in  the  coun- 
try, aided  by  a  gerrymander  of  the  Ohio  Congressional 
districts  which  made  success  impossible,  ended  his 
Congressional  career. 

He  believed  in  the  soundness  of  his  views,  and, 
without  a  moment's  hesitation  or  the  slightest  bitter- 
ness of  thought  or  expression,  he  declared  his  adher- 
ence to  his  principles  in  defeat  no  less  than  success, 
and  his  party  in  Ohio  put  its  standard  in  his  hands  and 
he  led  it  to  victory  after  one  of  the  most  arduous  cam- 
paigns in  a  state  celebrated  for  great  political  strug- 
gles. Again  he  led  his  party  in  a  gubernatorial  cam- 
paign, visiting  in  the  meantime  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, and  everywhere  received  by  his  countrymen  with 
such  approval  that  his  nomination  for  the  Presidency 
in  1896  was  inevitable. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  political  cam- 
paigns his  countrymen  in  thousands  called  upon  their 
candidate  at  his  modest  home,  and  his  bearing  and  ut- 
terances advanced  him  in  their  esteem  and  had  much  to 
do  with  the  triumph  of  his  party  which  called  him  to 
the  highest  office  in  the  people's  gift. 

His  great  work  was  still  before  him.  He  found 
our  relations  with  Spain  in  a  critical  condition,  due  to 
the  irritating  situation  in  Cuba.  He  determined  to  do 
all  within  the  range  of  his  official  duties  to  better  the 


184 

condition  of  the  Cuban  people,  to  relieve  the  strain  up- 
on our  country,  and,  if  possible,  to  accomplish  these 
ends  without  an  appeal  to  arms.  These  purposes  are 
the  key  to  his  Cuban  policy,  steadily  pursued  with 
much  accomplished,  when  the  unlooked-for  happened 
in  the  treacherous  anchoring  of  the  Maine,  where  she 
became  the  easy  prey  of  malicious  persons  bent  upon 
her  destruction.  The  President  realized  that  he  could 
no  longer  hope  for  a  peaceable  settlement  which  did 
not  include  the  withdrawal  of  Spain  from  the  Ameri- 
can continent,  and  he  promptly  advised  our  minister  at 
Madrid  that  only  such  a  settlement  would  be  satis- 
factory, and  that  no  assistance  could  be  afforded  to 
further  plans  of  so-called  autonomy  under  Spanish 
rule.  For  such  a  settlement  he  worked  with  untiring 
zeal,  while  preparing  for  the  resort  to  arms,  until  the 
passage  of  the  resolutions  demanding  withdrawal  was 
met  by  Spain  sending  to  General  Woodford  his  pass- 
ports, and  war  had  come. 

When  history  shall  record  the  events  of  that  brief 
struggle  it  will  be  known  how  truly  the  President  di- 
rected the  forces  by  land  and  sea. 

He  had  been  a  soldier,  but  he  loved  peace,  and 
knew  in  her  victories  was  our  best  security.  He 
dreaded  the  suffering  which  must  come  to  a  people  in 
the  loss  of  its  young  and  gallant  sons  more  than  all 
the  treasure  that  war  would  cost,  but  he  knew  that  be- 
ing in  the  conflict  it  was  merciful  to  bend  every  effort 
to  its  successful  prosecution. 

No  responsibility  of  his  eventful  administration 
rested  more  profoundly  upon  his  heart  and  mind  than 
that  which  involved  the  exercise  of  the  treaty-making 
power  in  determining  the  fate  of  the  Philippine 
Islands.  He  did  not  seek  and  would  gladly  have  avoided 


185 

the  necessity  of  carrying  our  governmental  responsi- 
bility to  distant  people  unused  to  self-government,  and 
having  little  in  common  with  our  institutions  and 
aspirations.  After  the  most  careful  consideration  he 
reached  the  conclusion  that  we  could  not  abandon  these 
people  to  their  fate,  or  throw  them  as  a  bone  of  conten- 
tion among  the  nations. 

With  a  full  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  involved, 
he  finally  concluded  that  our  duty  demanded  that  the 
United  States  take  title  to  these  islands,  and  instructed 
the  Peace  Commissioners  to  demand  their  cession,  at 
the  same,  time  extending  liberal  concessions  to  a  van- 
quished foe.  He  was  actuated  by  no  desire  to  bring 
dependent  people  under  imperial  control.  As  he  him- 
self declared,  his  purpose  was  rather  to  deliver  ten  mil- 
lions of  people  from  the  yoke  of  imperialism.  He  be- 
lieved in  the  power  of  the  American  Nation,  as  de- 
clared by  Chief  Justice  Marshall  in  one  of  his  great 
judgments,  to  acquire  territory  in  the  ways  known  to 
civilized  nations.  And  he  believed  with  equal  confi- 
dence that  the  representatives  of  the  people,  exercising 
the  powers  conferred  by  the  Constitution,  might  be 
trusted  to  see  that  the  people  who  come  under  our  flag 
shall  have  the  inestimable  privileges  of  self-govern- 
ment as  fast  as  they  are  capable  of  exercising  them  for 
themselves. 

In  that  great  state  paper  which  directed  the  forma- 
tion of  the  first  Philippine  government  he  required  that 
it  should  embrace  the  right  of  the  people  to  enjoy  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  secured  by  the  Bill  of  Rights 
of  the  American  Constitution  to  our  own  citizens  for 
the  protection  of  life,  liberty  and  property —  except, 
it  is  true,  trial  by  jury,  unknown  to  the  established 
system  of  jurisprudence  in  the  civilized  parts  of  the 


186 

islands,  and  wholly  unadapted  to  other  people  inhabit- 
ing the  archipelago.  He  declared  our  principles  should 
suffer  no  change  by  their  application  to  new  conditions, 
and  he  never  for  an  instant  forgot  that  his  country 
stood  among  the  Nations  for  the  right  of  the  people  to 
govern  themselves,  and  that  with  more  than  a  million 
of  his  countrymen,  he,  too,  had  fought  and  thousands 
of  his  comrades  had  died  upon  the  field  of  battle  to  per- 
petuate a  government  "of  the  people,  by  the  people  and 
for  the  people." 

"Man  is  neither  master  of  his  life  nor  of  his  fate. 
He  can  but  offer  to  his  fellow-men  his  efforts  to  dimin- 
ish human  suffering;  he  can  but  offer  to  God  his  in- 
domitable faith  in  the  growth  of  liberty." 

More  clearly  than  some  of  our  own  statesmen, 
Mr.  Gladstone  foresaw  the  sure  growth  in  influence  of 
the  American  in  the  world,  and  of  it  said : 

"Will  it  be  instinct  with  moral  life  in  proportion 
to  its  material  strength?  One  thing  is  certain:  his 
temptations  will  multiply  with  his  power,  his  responsi- 
bilities with  his  opportunities.  Will  the  seed  be  sown 
among  the  thorns?  Will  worthlessness  overrun  the 
ground  and  blight  its  flowers  and  its  fruit?  On  the 
answer  to  these  questions  and  to  such  as  these  it  will 
depend  whether  this  new  revelation  of  power  on  the 
earth  is  also  to  be  a  revelation  of  virtue,  whether  it 
shall  prove  a  blessing  or  a  curse.  May  heaven  avert 
every  dark  omen,  and  grant  that  the  latest  and  largest 
growth  of  the  great  Christian  civilization  shall  also  be 
the  brightest  and  best." 

No  man  felt  the  weight  of  these  portentious  ques- 
tions more  keenly  than  did  William  McKinley. 

If  William  McKinley  were  alive  to-day  he  would 
deplore  the  instances  of  faithlessness  to  public  trust 


187 

and  private  duty  which  have  been  disclosed  to  the 
country.  But  his  confidence  in  his  countrymen  and  the 
institutions  of  free  government  would  give  no  counte- 
nance to  the  pessimistic  spirit  which  sees  in  these  re- 
cent developments  the  downfall  of  the  Republic  and 
the  end  of  popular  government. 

He  would  find  rather  in  the  aroused  public  con- 
science the  evidence  that  the  American  people  are  ar- 
rayed as  never  before  against  corruption  in  high  places, 
and  have  entered  upon  a  campaign  of  purification  in 
public  and  private  life  which  does  not  mean  that 
shortcoming  has  never  existed  before  or  that  our  stand- 
ards of  conduct  have  lowered,  but  that  the  people  are 
arising  in  their  might  to  end  such  conditions  and  speed 
the  day  when  the  betrayal  of  public  trust  shall  be  as 
obnoxious  as  criminal  attacks  upon  life  or  property. 
He  would  have  believed  that  the  great  mass  of  the 
American  people  are  true  to  the  principles  upon  which 
the  country  was  founded,  and  know  that  our  safety  lies 
in  an  honest  administration  of  public  affairs  and  an  in- 
sistence upon  high  standards  of  integrity  in  private 
life,  with  obedience  to  laws  enforced  with  an  equal 
hand  alike  upon  the  rich  and  upon  the  poor.  He  would 
have  found  assurance  for  his  faith  in  the  people  mak- 
ing straight  any  paths  which  are  still  crooked  in  the 
fact  that,  with  few  exceptions,  American  statesmen 
are  patriotic  men  of  clean  lives,  honestly  and  faithfully 
discharging  their  duties  to  the  public,  and  that  venal 
practices  which  would  have  been  condoned  twenty-five 
years  ago  would  end  the  career  of  a  public  man  to- 
day. That  the  standards  of  conduct  have  advanced,  not 
retrograded,  and  that  the  great  body  of  our  public 
men  are  neither  corrupt  nor  corruptible. 


188 

We  may  be  too  near  the  events  to  weigh  with  the 
impartiality  of  the  historian  the  achievements  of  his 
administration.  Of  some  things  it  is  as  certain  now  as 
it  will  be  a  century  hence ;  he  found  the  country  in  the 
slough  of  financial  and  industrial  despond;  he  left  it 
prosperous  as  never  before  in  its  history.  He  con- 
ducted a  short  and  brilliant  war  which  liberated  a  peo- 
ple and  brought  forth  a  new  nation.  He  directed  a 
peace  of  unexampled  liberality  toward  a  conquered 
foe,  and  the  making  of  a  treaty  of  peace  which  took 
millions  of  people  under  the  protection  of  our  flag,  and 
began  their  tutelage  for  enlightened  self-government. 
He  set  an  example  of  liberality  and  fairness  in  the 
treatment  of  the  people  of  the  far  East  which  required 
only  remuneration  for  offenses  committed  against  our 
citizens  and  left  their  territory  unspoiled  by  seizure 
against  their  will.  His  country  became  as  never  be- 
fore a  power  among  the  nations,  and  her  flag  the  only 
passport  needed  to  insure  the  protection  of  the  rights 
of  her  citizens.  He  crowned  all  with  a  clean  life,  an 
unspotted  character,  and  a  devotion  to  the  simple  duties 
of  home  and  fireside  which  have  made  his  name  a 
synonym  for  all  that  is  best  in  the  most  sacred  rela- 
tions of  son,  husband  and  father. 

William  McKinley  was  devoted  to  his  country 
and  its  institutions.  He  did  not  concur  in  the  Na- 
poleonic theory  that  a  man  in  power  should  undertake 
to  shape  events  to  his  own  selfish  purpose.  He  be- 
lieved the  sober  sense  of  the  people  of  a  republic  was 
the  ultimate  appeal  of  the  statesman.  To  every  ques- 
tion of  public  policy  he  gave  the  most  earnest  and  care- 
ful thought,  and  sought  to  guide  public  sentiment  in 
the  channels  which  he  considered  to  be  the  best  for  the 
general  good.  He  delighted  to  take  his  countrymen  in- 


189 

to  his  confidence  as  to  his  plans  and  purposes  by  fre- 
quent visits  among  them  and  frank  utterances  in  their 
presence.  He  was  ever  of  the  people  and  kept  in  touch 
with  them.  We  may  learn  his  ideals  of  the  duties  of 
a  chief  magistrate  in  the  words  spoken  by  him  of  his 
great  predecessor: 

"What  were  the  traits  of  character  which  made 
Abraham  Lincoln  prophet  and  master,  without  a  rival, 
in  the  great  crisis  of  our  history? 

"What  gave  him  such  mighty  power?  To  me  the 
answer  is  simple;  Lincoln  had  sublime  faith  in  the 
people.  He  walked  with  and  among  them.  He  recog- 
nized the  importance  and  power  of  an  enlightened  pub- 
lic sentiment  and  was  guided  by  it.  Even  amid  the 
vicissitudes  of  war  he  concealed  little  from  public  view 
and  inspection.  In  all  he  did  he  invited  rather  than 
evaded  examination  and  criticism.  He  submitted  his 
plans  and  purposes,  as  far  as  practicable,  to  public 
consideration  with  perfect  frankness  and  sincerity. 
There  was  such  homely  simplicity  in  his  character  that 
it  could  not  be  hedged  in  by  the  pomp  of  place  or  the 
ceremonies  of  high  official  station.  He  was  so  accessi- 
ble to  the  public  that  he  seemed  to  take  the  whole 
people  into  his  confidence.  Here,  perhaps,  was  one 
secret  of  his  power.  The  people  never  lost  their  con- 
fidence in  him,  however  much  they  unconsciously  added 
to  his  personal  discomforts  and  trials.  His  patience 
was  almost  superhuman,  and  who  will  say  that  he  was 
mistaken  in  the  treatment  of  the  thouands  who 
thronged  continually  about  him.  More  than  once  when 
reproached  for  permitting  visitors  to  crowd  upon  him 
he  asked  in  pained  surprise:  'Why,  what  harm  does 
this  confidence  in  men  do  me?  I  get  only  good  in- 
spiration from  it.'  " 


190 

How  unconsciously,  yet  how  truthfully,  in  this 
picture  he  holds  the  mirror  up  to  his  own  character 
and  conduct. 

No  less  faithfully  has  he  drawn  his  own  portrait, 
when,  saying  of  him : 

"Lincoln  had  a  happy,  peculiar  habit,  which  few 
public  men  have  attained,  of  looking  away  from  the 
deceptive  and  misleading  influences  about  him — and 
none  are  more  deceptive  than  those  of  public  life  in 
our  capital — straight  into  the  hearts  of  the  people.  He 
could  not  be  deceived  by  the  self-interested  host  of 
eager  counsellors  who  sought  to  enforce  their  own  pe- 
culiar views  upon  him  as  the  views  of  the  country.  He 
chose  to  determine  for  himself  what  the  people  were 
thinking  about  and  wanting  to  do,  and  no  man  ever 
lived  who  was  a  more  accurate  judge  of  their  opinions 
and  wishes." 

William  McKinley  knew  a  war  begun,  without 
exhausting  every  means  of  reaching  an  honorable 
peace,  would  not  be  justified  by  the  sober  sense  of  the 
people. 

He  knew  that  neither  law  nor  fact,  when  fully  dis- 
cussed and  fairly  developed,  would  justify  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  so-called  Cuban  Republic,  and  he  stood  like 
a  rock  against  the  folly  of  such  a  course,  and  time  has 
vindicated  the  wisdom  of  his  position.  When  his  mind 
was  made  up  he  was  firm  and  immovable.  Seeking  the 
advice  and  listening  to  the  opinions  of  others  associated 
in  the  responsibilities  of  his  administration,  he  was  the 
executive  head  of  the  government,  and  took  the  respon- 
sibility of  ultimate  decision  upon  himself. 


191 

Turn  again  to  his  picture  of  Lincoln: 

"He  was  neither  an  autocrat  nor  a  tyrant.  If 
he  moved  slowly  sometimes  it  was  better  to  move 
slowly,  and,  like  the  successful  general  he  was,  he  was 
only  waiting  for  his  reserves  to  come  up.  Possessing 
almost  unlimited  power,  he  yet  carried  himself  like  one 
of  the  humblest  of  men.  He  weighed  every  subject. 
He  considered  and  reflected  upon  every  phase  of  public 
duty.  He  got  the  average  judgment  of  the  plain  peo- 
ple." 

As  truly  as  Abraham  Lincoln,  William  McKinley 
believed  that  this  average  judgment  was  the  power 
that  should  control  in  the  public  affairs  of  a  free 
people. 

Burke  has  said :  "A  disposition  to  preserve  and  an 
ability  to  improve,  taken  together,  would  be  my  stand- 
ard of  a  statesman."  William  McKinley 's  career  was 
a  steady  growth  from  his  entrance  into  public  life  to 
his  last  speech  at  Buffalo,  which  comes  to  us  with  the 
force  of  the  last  words  of  wisdom  and  the  tender 
beauty  of  a  benediction. 

The  first  of  protectionists,  he  lived  to  see  his 
country  developed  until  it  led  the  manufacturing  na- 
tions of  the  world,  when  more  markets  must  be  sought 
for  our  products,  and  he  boldly  declared  for  an  enlight- 
ened public  policy  which  should  seek  the  reciprocal 
trade  of  the  world  without  impairing  the  present  high 
standard  of  American  production  and  wages. 

In  touching  words,  bidding  farewell  to  his  neigh- 
bors and  townsmen,  when,  leaving  them  to  take  up  the 
untried  duties  of  the  Presidency,  he  declared : 

"To  all  of  us  the  future  is  as  a  sealed  book,  but  if 
I  can,  by  official  act  or  administration  or  utterance  in 
any  degree  add  to  the  prosperity  and  unity  of  our  be- 


192 

loved  country  and  the  advancement  and  well-being  of 
our  splendid  citizenship,  I  will  devote  the  best  and 
most  unselfish  efforts  of  my  life  to  that  end." 

To  promote  the  restoration  of  cordial  feeling  be- 
tween the  sections  of  our  country  which  had  been  in 
deadly  difference  was  a  purpose  close  to  his  heart. 
Early  in  his  administration  he  found  a  gallant  son  of 
the  South  in  the  most  important  consular  position 
within  his  gift.  To  the  partisan  demand  for  his  re- 
moval to  make  place  for  another  he  returned  the  same 
answer  that  he  afterwards  made  to  Spain  when  she 
requested  his  removal,  that  it  would  not  be  thought  of 
so  long  as  he  did  his  duty  with  the  devotion  and 
patriotism  which  characterized  his  acts.  When  war 
came  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  giving  to  Fitzhugh  Lee 
a  commission  to  lead  the  sons  of  those  who  had  worn 
the  gray,  as  well  as  those  who  had  worn  the  blue, 
against  the  enemy  of  a  common  country.  He  had  the 
supreme  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  sectional  line  dis- 
appear in  the  devotion  to  country  of  those  who  had 
met  but  a  few  years  before  in  the  strife  of  the  greatest 
of  civil  conflicts.  He  believed  that  war  had  been  prose- 
cuted to  make  this  a  Union  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name, 
and  he  stirred  the  Southern  heart  with  love  when  he 
declared  in  the  presence  of  a  great  gathering  at  At- 
lanta : 

"Every  soldier's  grave  made  during  our  unfor- 
tunate civil  war  is  a  tribute  to  American  valor." 

So  responsive  had  he  found  his  Southern  breth- 
ren to  his  expression  of  good  will  that  the  following 
day  he  gave  utterance  to  sentiments  which  expressed 
his  gratitude  in  these  fervent  words : 

"Reunited!  Glorious  realization!  It  expresses 
the  thought  of  my  mind  and  the  long  deferred  consum- 


193 

mation  of  my  heart's  desire  as  I  stand  in  this  presence. 
It  interprets  the  hearty  demonstration  here  witnessed, 
and  is  the  patriotic  refrain  of  all  sections  and  all  lovers 
of  the  republic.  Reunited — one  country  again  and  one 
country  forever ! — Proclaim  it  from  the  press  and  pul- 
pit; teach  it  in  the  schools,  write  it  across  the  skies. 
The  world  sees  it  and  feels  it.  It  cheers  every  heart 
North  and  South,  and  brightens  the  life  of  every 
American  home.  Let  nothing  ever  strain  it  again.  At 
peace  with  all  the  world  and  with  one  another,  what 
can  stand  in  the  pathway  of  our  progress  and  pros- 
perity?" 

When  he  lay  upon  his  bed  of  suffering  no  messages 
could  exceed  in  sympathy  and  Iqye  those  which  came 
from  the  Southland.  Had  there  been  room  to  receive 
them,  his  funeral  cortege  would  have  numbered  thou- 
sands who  had  borne  arms  against  the  Union.  "When 
he  lived" — as  Motley  said  of  the  martyred  William  of 
Orange — "he  was  the  guiding  star  of  a  whole  brave 
people;  when  he  died,  the  little  children  cried  in  the 
streets." 

William  McKinley  loved  his  home  and  cherished 
his  friends.  There  is  a  closer  tie  between  the  dwellers 
in  the  smaller  communities  than  is  possible  in  the  rush 
and  diversity  of  interest  and  attraction  in  large  cities. 
The  good  old-fashioned  word  "neighbor"  means  much 
to  those  who  depend  upon  one  another  closely  in  the 
daily  walk  of  life,  and  who  turn  naturally  to  those  near 
them  in  time  of  sorrow  and  distress. 

No  matter  to  what  heights  of  success  he  arose, 
coming  home,  President  McKinley  was  ever  the  same 
to  neighbors  and  friends  of  his  early  manhood.  To 
others  he  may  have  been  the  ruler  of  the  first  of  na- 
tions, intrusted  with  power  to  make  or  mar  a  people's 


194 

destiny.  At  home  he  was  ever  the  guide,  counsellor 
and  friend  of  those  who  knowing  him  best  loved  him 
most.  His  ideal  of  home  was  one  of  peace  and  com- 
fort, not  extravagance  and  display.  "The  American 
home,"  he  declared,  "where  honesty,  sobriety  and  truth 
preside,  and  a  simple  every-day  virtue  without  pomp 
and  ostentation,  is  practised,  is  the  nursery  of  all  true 
education."  It  is  in  homes  such  as  this  that  the  people 
bereft  of  one  of  their  own,  mourn  his  departure.  It 
was  in  the  upbuilding  of  such  homes  that  William 
McKinley  found  the  highest  duty  of  constructive 
statesmanship  and  the  true  safeguard  of  Republican 
institutions. 

One  who  knew  and  loved  him,  and  had  seen  the 
beauty  of  his  home  life,  has  well  said : 

"From  the  front  porch  of  a  cottage  covered  with 
vines  yonder  at  Canton,  the  outline  sketch  of  two  lives 
has  been  thrown,  so  beautiful  in  their  loyalty  to  one 
another  that  good  men  everywhere  stand  in  silence  be- 
fore it  while  the  womanhood  of  the  world  seeing  the 
knightliness  of  love  which  alters  not,  draw  near,  from 
stations  high  and  low,  to  salute  the  picture  with  the 
benediction  of  their  tears." 

Who  shall  speak  adequately  of  the  gentleness  and 
kindness  of  this  strong  man?  Cardinal  Newman  has 
said:  "It  is  almost  a  definition  of  a  gentleman  to  say 
that  he  is  one  who  never  inflicts  pain."  If  that  be  the 
test,  he  was  indeed  one,  "Who  wore  without  reproach 
the  grand  old  name  of  gentleman." 

William  McKinley  never  consciously  wronged  a 
fellow-being.  It  was  his  rule  not  only  to  refrain  from 
inflicting  pain,  but  to  scatter  joy  wherever  he  could. 
He  would  step  aside  from  a  march  of  retreat  to  assure 
a  weeping  mother,  who  loved  the  Union,  that  defeat 


195 

was  but  for  a  day  and  would  be  turned  into  victory. 
Steadfast  in  his  friendship,  he  would  not  swerve  from 
loyalty  for  the  glittering  prize  of  the  Presidency.  En- 
during the  burdens  which  came  before,  during  and 
after  the  war,  no  word  of  impatience  ever  escaped  his 
lips,  and  he  met  the  people  with,  a  smile  of  welcome 
and  a  word  of  encouragement.  He  would  turn  from 
the  most  important  affair  of  state  to  give  a  flower  to 
a  little  child,  or  to  say  some  kindly  word  to  a  visit- 
or for  whom  he  could  do  no  more.  Resentments  he 
had  none.  He  believed  that  life  was  too  short  to  give 
any  of  his  time  to  cherishing  animosity.  Sensitive  to 
criticism,  no  one  ever  heard  him  utter  an  unkind  word 
of  another.  He  met  calumny  with  silence  and  unfair 
criticism  with  charity.  His  was  the  gospel  of  cheer- 
fulness. His  presence  was  sunshine,  never  gloom ;  his 
encouraging  words  dispelled  doubt  and  nerved  others 
to  their  duty. 

In  the  fullness  of  life,  with  a  message  of  good 
will  and  kindness  yet  fresh  on  his  lips,  meeting  the  peo- 
ple who  delighted  to  testify  that  affection  and  appre- 
ciation which  was  his  highest  reward  for  faithful  and 
unremitting  service,  he  was  felled  to  earth  for  no  other 
offense  than  that  in  his  person  he  represented  the  head 
of  the  nation,  and  stood  for  liberty  regulated  by  law, 
and  not  for  that  unbridled  license  which  knows  no  re- 
spect for  the  laws  of  God  or  man. 

"The  words  of  mercy  were  upon  his  lips, 
Forgiveness  in  his  heart  and  on  his  pen, 
When  this  vile  murderer  brought  swift  eclipse 
To  thoughts  of  peace  on  earth,  good  will  toward  men." 
So  gentle,  kind  and  true  had  been  this  life  that 
not  even  his  slayer  could  strike  at  him.    With  this  gen- 
tleness what  mighty  strength!     Death  meets  all  on 


196 

equal  terms.  The  man  as  he  is  then  stands  unveiled. 
With  so  much  to  make  life  dear,  this  gentle  man  did 
not  falter  when  the  summons  came.  Looking  forward 
to  retirement  in  the  home  he  loved,  sure  of  the  affec- 
tion of  his  countrymen  and  the  respect  of  the  world, 
holding  the  hand  of  his  loved  companion,  whose  wel- 
fare had  ever  been  the  first  purpose  of  his  life,  and 
whose  returning  strength  had  made  the  last  summer 
one  of  his  brightest,  he  entered  the  shadow  of  death 
with  no  murmur  at  his  fate,  leaning  on  the  rod  and 
staff  which  had  comforted  his  fathers,  died  as  he  had 
lived  in  humble  submission  to  the  will  of  God. 

He  lives  in  the  love  of  his  countrymen.  His  mem- 
ory grows  brighter  with  the  years;  the  nobleness  of 
his  life,  the  sublime  heroism  of  his  death  shall  never 
perish  from  the  thoughts  of  men.  He  lives  in  the 
thousands  of  homes  where  comfort  and  domestic  peace 
reflect  the  wisdom  of  his  statesmanship.  He  lives  in 
the  beneficence  of  his  example  at  every  hearth  where 
succeeding  generations  shall  recount  the  strength  and 
beauty  of  his  character  and  tell  again  the  story  of  his 
life. 


Courtesy    Courtney    Studio, 
Canton,  Ohio. 


THE  McKINLEY  STATUE, 

CANTON,  OHIO. 

(See    inscription    on   another    page.) 


IN  MEMORIAM 

WILLIAM  MCKINLEY 

PRESIDENT 

OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES 
A  STATESMEN  SINGULARLY 
GIFTED  TO  UNITE  THE  DIS- 
CORDANT FORCES  OF  GOVERN- 
MENT  AND  MOULD  THE 
DIVERSE  PURPOSES  OF  MEN 
TOWARD  PROGRESSIVE  AND 
SALUTARY  ACTION,  A  MAGIST- 
RATE WHOSE  POISE  OF  JUDGE- 
MENT  WAS  TESTED  AND 
VINDICATED  IN  A  SUCCESSION 
OF  NATIONAL  EMERGENCIES, 
GOOD  CITIZEN,  BRAVE 
SOLDIER,  WISE  EXECUTIVE, 
HELPER  AND  LEADER  OF  MEN, 
EXEMPLAR  TO  HIS  PEOPLE 
OF  THE  VIRTUES  THAT  BUILD 
AND  CONSERVE  THE  STATE 
SOCIETY  AND  THE  HOME 


MEMORIAL  DEDICATION  POEM 

JAMES  WHITCOMB  RILEY 

The  dedication  of  the  McKinley  monument  and 
statue  at  Canton,  Ohio,  on  September  30th,  1907,  was 
attended  by  a  throng  of  50,000  people.  The  Governor 
of  the  State,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  mem- 
bers of  his  cabinet,  many  Senators  and  Congressmen 
and  others  of  note  were  present. 

Mr.  Riley  was  introduced  by  Governor  Andrew  L. 
Harris,  who  presided. 


He  said :  "It  is  God's  way ; 

His  will,  not  ours,  be  done — " 
And  o'er  our  land  a  shadow  lay 

That  darkened  all  the  sun ; 
The  voice  of  Jubilee, 

That  gladdened  all  the  air, 
Fell  sudden  to  a  quavering  key 

Of  suppliance  and  prayer. 
He  was  our  chief — our  guide — 

Sprung  from  our  common  earth, 
From  youth's  long  struggle  proved  and  tried 

To  manhood's  highest  worth ; 
Through  toil,  he  knew  all  needs 

Of  all  his  toiling  kind — 
The  favored  striver  who  succeeds — 

The  one  who  falls  behind. 
The  boy's  young  faith  he  still 

Retained  through  years  mature — 
The  faith  to  labor,  hand  and  will, 

Nor  doubt  the  harvest  sure — 
The  harvest  of  man's  love — 

A  nation's  joy,  that  swells 
To  heights  of  song,  or  deeps  whereof 

But  sacred  silence  tells. 
To  him  his  county  seemed, 

Even  as  a  mother,  where 
He  rested — slept;  and  once  he  dreamed — 

As  on  her  bosom  there — 

201 


202 

And  thrilled  to  hear,  within 

That  dream  of  her,  the  call 
Of  bugles  and  the  clang  and  din 

Of  war,  and  o'er  it  all 
His  rapt  eyes  caught  the  bright 

Old  banner,  winging  wild, 
And  beck'ning  him  as  to  the  fight, 

When — even  as  a  child — 
He  wakened  and  the  dream 

Was  real !    And  he  leapt, 
As  lead  the  proud  flag  through  a  gleam, 

Of  tears  the  mother  wept. 
His  was  a  tender  hand — 

Even  as  a  woman's  is — 
And  yet  as  fixed,  in  right's  command, 

As  this  bronze  hand  of  his : 
This  was  the  soldier  brave — 

This  was  the  victor  fair — 
This  is  the  hero  heaven  gave 

To  glory  here — and  there. 


MEMORIAL  DEDICATION  ADDRESS 

PRESIDENT  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

This  address  was  delivered  at  Canton,  Ohio,  Sep- 
tember 30th,  1907,  on  the  occasion  of  the  dedication 
of  the  McKinley  Monument. 

In  the  .presence  of  a  vast  throng  and  in  the  imme- 
diate presence  of  a  distinguished  company,  Governor 
Harris  introduced  the  speaker. 

•fr       •¥      <t< 

We  have  gathered  together  today  to  pay  our 
meed  of  respect  and  affection  to  the  memory  of  Wil- 
liam McKinley,  who  as  President  won  a  place  in  the 
hearts  of  the  American  people  such  as  but  three  or  four 
of  all  the  presidents  of  this  country  have  ever  won.  He 
was  of  singular  uprightness  and  purity  of  character, 
alike  in  public  and  in  private  life;  a  citizen  who  loved 
peace,  he  did  his  duty  faithfully  and  well  for  four 
years  of  war  when  the  honor  of  the  Nation  called  him 
to  arms.  As  congressman,  as  governor  of  his  state, 
and  finally  as  President,  he  rose  to  the  foremost  place 
among  our  statesmen,  reaching  a  position  which  would 
satisfy  the  keenest  ambition;  but  he  never  lost  that 
simple  and  thoughtful  kindness  toward  every  human 
being,  great  or  small,  lofty  or  humble,  with  whom  he 
was  brought  in  contact,  which  so  endeared  him  to  our 
people. 

He  had  to  grapple  with  more  serious  and  complex 
problems  than  any  president  since  Lincoln,  and  yet, 
while  meeting  every  demand  of  statesmanship,  he  con- 
tinued to  live  a  beautiful  and  touching  family  life,  a 
life  very  healthy  for  this  nation  to  see  in  its  foremost 
citizen ;  and  now  the  woman  who  walked  in  the  shadow 
ever  after  his  death,  the  wife  to  whom  his  loss  was  a 

203 


204 

calamity  more  crushing  than  it  could  be  to  any  other 
human  being,  lies  beside  him  here  in  the  same  sepul- 
cher. 

There  is  a  singular  appropriateness  in  the  in- 
scription on  his  monument.  Mr.  Cortelyou,  whose  re- 
lations with  him  were  of  such  close  intimacy,  gives  me 
the  following  information  about  it :  On  the  President's 
trip  to  the  Pacific  slope  in  the  spring  of  1901  Presi- 
dent Wheeler,  of  the  University  of  California,  con- 
ferred the  degree  of  LL.  D.  upon  him  in  words  so  well 
chosen  that  they  struck  the  fastidious  taste  of  John 
Hay,  then  secretary  of  state,  who  wrote  and  asked  for 
a  copy  of  them  from  President  Wheeler.  On  the  re- 
ceipt of  this  copy  he  sent  the  following  letter  to  Presi- 
dent McKinley,  a  letter  which  now  seems  filled  with  a 
strange  and  unconscious  prescience. 

"Dear  Mr.  President : 

President  Wheeler  sent  me  the  inclosed  at  my  re- 
quest. You  will  have  the  words  in  more  permanent 
shape.  They  seem  to  me  remarkably  well  chosen,  and 
stately  and  dignified  enough  to  serve — long  hence, 
please  God — as  your  epitaph. 

Yours,  faithfully, 

JOHN  HAY. 

"University  of  California 

"Office  of  the  President 

"By  authority  vested  in  me  by  the  regents  of  the 
University  of  California,  I  confer  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Laws  upon  William  McKinley,  President  of  the 
United  States,  a  statesman  singularly  gifted  to  unite 
the  discordant  forces  of  the  government  and  mold  the 
diverse  purposes  of  men  toward  progressive  and  salu- 
tary action,  a  magistrate  whose  poise  of  judgment  has 


205 

been  tested  and  vindicated  in  a  succession  of  national 
emergencies;  good  citizen,  brave  soldier,  wise  execu- 
tive, helper  and  leader  of  men,  exemplar  to  his  people 
of  the  virtues  that  build  and  conserve  the  state,  society, 
and  the  home. 

"Berkeley,  May  15,  1901." 

It  would  be  hard  to  imagine  an  epitaph  which  a 
good  citizen  would  be  more  anxious  to  deserve  or  one 
which  would  more  happily  describe  the  qualities  of 
that  great  and  good  citizen  whose  life  we  here  com- 
memorate. He  possessed  to  a  very  remarkable  degree 
the  gift  of  uniting  discordant  forces  and  securing  from 
them  a  harmonious  action  which  told  for  good  govern- 
ment. From  purposes  not  merely  diverse,  but  bitterly 
conflicting,  he  was  able  to  secure  healthful  action  for 
the  good  of  the  state.  In  both  poise  and  judgment  he 
rose  level  to  several  emergencies  he  had  to  meet  as 
leader  of  the  nation,  and  like  all  men  with  the  root  of 
true  greatness  in  them  he  grew  to  steadily  larger  stat- 
ure under  the  stress  of  heavy  responsibilities.  He  was 
a  good  citizen  and  a  brave  soldier,  a  chief  executive 
whose  wisdom  entitled  him  to  the  trust  which  he  re- 
ceived throughout  the  nation.  He  was  not  only  a 
leader  of  men  but  preeminently  a  helper  of  men ;  for 
one  of  his  most  marked  traits  was  the  intensely  human 
quality  of  his  wide  and  deep  sympathy.  Finally,  he 
not  merely  preached,  he  was,  that  most  valuable  of  all 
citizens  in  a  democracy  like  ours,  a  man  who  in  the 
highest  place  served  as  an  unconscious  example  to  his 
people  of  the  virtues  that  build  and  conserve  alike  our 
public  life,  and  the  foundation  of  all  public  life,  the 
intimate  life  of  the  home. 

Many  lessons  are  taught  by  his  career,  but  none 
more  valuable  than  the  lesson  of  broad  human  sym- 


206 

pathy  for  and  among  all  of  our  citizens  of  all  classes 
and  creeds.  No  other  President  has  ever  more  de- 
served to  have  his  life  work  characterized  in  Lincoln's 
words  as  being  carried  on  'with  malice  toward  none, 
with  charity  toward  all.'  As  a  boy  he  worked  hard 
with  his  hands;  he  entered  the  army  as  a  private 
soldier ;  he  knew  poverty ;  he  earned  his  own  livelihood 
and  by  his  own  exertions  he  finally  rose  to  the  position 
of  a  man  of  moderate  means.  Not  merely  was  he  in 
personal  touch  with  farmer  and  town  dweller,  with 
capitalist  and  wageworker,  but  he  felt  an  intimate  un- 
derstanding of  each,  and  therefore  an  intimate  sym- 
pathy with  each;  and  his  consistent  effort  was  to  try 
to  judge  all  by  the  same  standard  and  to  treat  all  with 
the  same  justice.  Arrogance  toward  the  weak,  and  en- 
vious hatred  of  those  well  off,  were  equally  abhorrent 
to  his  just  and  gentle  soul. 

Surely  this  attitude  of  his  should  be  the  attitude 
of  all  our  people  today.  It  would  be  a  cruel  disaster  to 
this  country  to  permit  ourselves  to  adopt  an  attitude  of 
hatred  and  envy  toward  success  worthily  won,  toward 
wealth  honestly  acquired.  Let  us  in  this  respect  profit 
by  the  example  of  the  people  of  the  republics  in  this 
western  hemisphere  to  the  south  of  us.  Some  of  these 
republics  have  prospered  greatly,  but  there  are  certain 
ones  that  have  lagged  far  behind,  that  still  continue  in 
a  condition  of  material  poverty,  of  social  and  political 
unrest  and  confusion. 

Without  exception  the  republics  of  the  former 
class  are  those  in  which  honest  industry  has  been  as- 
sured of  reward  and  protection ;  those  where  a  cordial 
welcome  has  been  extended  to  the  kind  of  enterprise 
which  benefits  the  whole  country,  while  incidentally, 


207 

as  is  right  and  proper,  giving  substantial  rewards  to 
those  who  manifest  it.  On  the  other  hand,  the  poor 
and  backward  republics,  the  republics  in  which  the  lot 
of  the  average  citizen  is  least  desirable,  and  the  lot  of 
the  laboring  man  worst  of  all,  are  precisely  those  re- 
publics in  which  industry  has  been  killed  because 
wealth  exposed  its  owner  to  spoliation.  To  these  com- 
munities foreign  capital  now  rarely  comes,  because  it 
has  been  found  that  as  soon  as  capital  is  employed  so 
as  to  give  substantial  remuneration  to  those  supplying 
it,  it  excites  ignorant  envy  and  hostility,  which  result 
in  such  oppressive  action,  within  or  without  the  law, 
as  sooner  or  later  to  work  a  virtual  confiscation.  Every 
manifestation  of  feeling  of  this  kind  in  our  civilization 
should  be  crushed  at  the  outset  by  the  weight  of  a  sen- 
sible public  opinion. 

From  the  standpoint  of  our  material  prosperity 
there  is  only  one  other  thing  as  important  as  the  dis- 
couragement of  a  spirit  of  envy  and  hostility  toward 
honest  business  men,  toward  honest  men  of  means; 
this  is  the  discouragement  of  dishonest  business  men, 
the  war  upon  the  chicanery  and  wrongdoing  which  are 
peculiarly  repulsive,  peculiarly  noxious,  when  ex- 
hibited by  men  who  have  no  excuse  of  want,  of  poverty, 
of  ignorance,  for  their  crimes. 

Men  of  means,  and  above  all  men  of  great  wealth, 
can  exist  in  safety  under  the  peaceful  protection  of  the 
state,  only  in  orderly  societies,  where  liberty  manifests 
itself  through  and  under  the  law.  It  is  these  men  who, 
more  than  any  others,  should,  in  the  interests  of  the 
class  to  which  they  belong,  in  the  interests  of  their 
children  and  their  children's  children,  seek  in  every 
way,  but  especially  in  the  conduct  of  their  lives,  to  in- 


208 

sist  upon  and  to  build  up  respect  for  the  law.  It  may 
not  be  true  from  the  standpoint  of  some  particular 
individual  of  this  class,  but  in  the  long  run  it  is  pre- 
eminently true  from  the  standpoint  of  the  class  as  a 
whole,  no  less  than  of  the  country  as  a  whole,  that  it  is 
a  veritable  calamity  to  achieve  a  temporary  triumph 
by  violation  or  evasion  of  the  law ;  and  we  are  the  best 
friends  of  the  man  of  property ;  we  show  ourselves  the 
staunchest  upholders  of  the  rights  of  property,  when 
we  set  our  faces  like  flint  against  those  offenders  who 
do  wrong  in  order  to  acquire  great  wealth  or  who  use 
this  wealth  as  a  help  to  wrongdoing. 

Wrongdoing  is  confined  to  no  class.  Good  and 
evil  are  to  be  found  among  both  rich  and  poor,  and  in 
drawing  the  line  among  our  fellows  we  must  draw  it 
on  conduct  and  not  on  worldly  possessions.  In  the 
abstract  most  of  us  will  admit  this.  In  the  concrete 
we  can  act  upon  such  doctrine  only  if  we  really  have 
knowledge  of  and  sympathy  with  one  another.  If  both 
the  wage-worker  and  the  capitalist  are  able  to  enter 
each  into  the  other's  life,  to  meet  him  so  as  to  get  into 
genuine  sympathy  with  him,  most  of  the  misunder- 
standing between  them  will  disappear  and  its  place 
will  be  taken  by  a  judgment  broader,  juster,  more 
kindly,  and  more  generous;  for  each  will  find  in  the 
other  the  same  essential  human  attributes  that  exist 
in  himself.  It  was  President  McKinley's  peculiar 
glory  that  in  actual  practice  he  realized  this  as  it  is 
given  to  but  few  men  to  realize  it ;  that  his  broad  and 
deep  sympathies  made  him  feel  a  genuine  sense  of  one- 
ness with  all  his  fellow-Americans,  whatever  their 
station  or  work  in  life,  so  that  to  his  soul  they  wrere  all 
joined  with  him  in  a  great  brotherly  democracy  of  the 


209 

spirit.  It  is  not  given  to  many  of  us  in  our  lives  actu- 
ally to  realize  this  attitude  to  the  extent  that  he  did; 
but  we  can  at  least  have  it  before  us  as  the  goal  of  our 
endeavor,  and  by  so  doing  we  shall  pay  honor  better 
than  in  any  other  way  to  the  memory  of  the  dead 
President  whose  services  in  life  we  this  day  commem- 
orate. 


Courtesy,  Courtney  Studio, 
Canton,  Ohio. 

THE   McKINLEY   MONUMENT,  CANTON,  OHIO. 

(Front  view.) 

THIS    MONUMENT    WAS    CONSTRUCTED    AT    A    COST    OF 

$525,000,  WHICH  REPRESENTS  THE  CONTRIBUTIONS 

OF  MORE  THAN  A  MILLION   MEN, 

WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN. 


WILLIAM  McKINLEY 

MARLIN  E.  OLMSTEAD 
Congressman  Harrisburgh,  Pennsylvania 

This  address  was  given  before  the  Young  Men's 
Republican  Tariff  Club  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  January 
29th,  1912. 

This  Club,  as  does  the  Tippecanoe  Club,  observes 
annually  McKinley  Day. 

The  banquet  was  held  in  the  banquet  hall  of  The 
Schenley,  Pittsburgh. 

Other  speakers  were  Senator  Boies  Penrose  and 
Congressman  John  Dalzell. 

Toastmaster,  Senator  William  E.  Crow,  introduced 
the  speaker. 

*      *      * 

This  nation  was  made  possible  under  Washing- 
ton, saved  from  the  Valley  of  Death  under  Lincoln,  and 
rescued  from  impending  bankruptcy,  magnified,  glori- 
fied and  made  a  world  power  under  William  McKinley. 

Descended  from  an  ancestor  who  plied  his  trade 
as  weaver  in  York,  Pa. ;  the  seventh  child  of  the  mana- 
ger of  an  iron  foundry ;  born  in  a  little  wooden  building 
used  partly  as  a  store  and  partly  as  a  dwelling ;  with  no 
surroundings  of  luxury  or  wealth  and  no  unusual  edu- 
cational advantages;  he  was  just  a  typical  average 
American  boy,  a  sample  of  the  product  of  our  Ameri- 
can life.  He  inherited  from  his  parents  a  strong  con- 
stitution and  acquired  from  them  and  their  teachings 
the  attributes  of  a  noble  and  lofty  character  and  habits 
of  great  industry ;  with  these  as  a  foundation  he 
worked  out  his  own  destiny. 

When,  at  the  age  of  21,  he  began  the  study  of 
law,  he  was  already  a  Grand  Army  veteran.  With  four 
years  of  army  service  to  his  credit,  he  wore  that  little 

213 


214 

bronze  button  with  as  much  pride  as  any  honor  subse- 
quently bestowed  upon  him  by  a  grateful  people.  He 
had  enlisted  as  a  private,  participated  in  many  con- 
flicts, been  twice  promoted  for  gallant  service  on  the 
field  of  battle,  and  honorably  discharged  at  the  end  of 
the  war  with  the  rank  of  major. 

In  1876,  at  the  age  of  33,  he  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress and  served  for  seven  consecutive  terms. 

By  close  application,  industry  and  ability  he 
gradually  compelled  recognition  as  a  leader,  and  in 
1889  was  one  of  several  candidates  for  the  speakership, 
standing  next  to  Thomas  B.  Reed,  who,  on  the  third 
ballot,  defeated  him. 

Upon  the  death  of  William  D.  Kelly  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, he  became  chairman  of  the  ways  and  means  com- 
mittee and  floor  leader  of  his  party  in  the  House.  He 
had  already  become  a  champion  of  protection,  and  in 
that  Congress  introduced,  and  after  a  protracted  strug- 
gle secured  the  passage  of  the  famous  McKinley  tariff 
bill. 

As  the  result  of  a  gerrymandered  district  he  was, 
in  1890,  defeated  for  re-election  to  Congress.  Outraged 
by  the  treatment  he  had  received,  the  people  of  Ohio 
elected  him  governor  by  the  highest  vote  ever  cast  for 
that  office. 

In  1892,  owing  largely  to  misrepresentation  and 
misunderstanding  of  his  tariff  bill,  and  to  the  high  cost 
of  living  which  was  charged  up  to  it,  the  Republican 
party  was  hurled  from  power  and  the  Democrats,  suc- 
ceeding to  all  branches  of  the  government,  promptly 
repealed  the  McKinley  bill.  There  immediately  set  in 
a  flowing  tide  of  distrust,  distress  and  bankruptcy.  The 
cost  of  the  necessities  of  life  was  indeed  reduced,  in  dol- 
lars and  cents,  but  in  human  labor,  was  so  increased 


215 

as  to  put  them  out  of  reach,  and  by  1896  there  were 
more  than  1,000,000  unemployed  men. 

The  people  again  longed  for  a  return  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  which  William  McKinley  was  the  avowed 
champion.  Having  in  the  meantime  been  re-elected 
governor  of  Ohio  by  an  enormous  vote,  he  was  in  that 
year  nominated  for  the  presidency  upon  the  first  ballot 
over  his  nearest  competitor,  Thomas  B.  Reed,  who, 
seven  years  before,  had  defeated  him  for  the  speaker- 
ship. 

Had  McKinley  been  made  speaker,  then  Reed 
would  have  become  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee.  It  would  have  been  the  Reed  bill  instead 
of  the  McKinley  bill.  McKinley  would  have  continued 
speaker  and  Reed  would  have  become  president  of  the 
United  States. 

It  was  as  the  champion  of  protection  that  Mc- 
Kinley rode  to  power  and  glory.  He  declared  that  it 
was  not  merely  a  theory  with  him,  but  a  conviction. 

He  never  changed  his  convictions  to  secure  dele- 
gates or  to  catch  votes.  Even  in  the  hour  of  his  party's 
defeat  he  prophetically  declared  that  "The  principles 
and  policies  of  that  bill  will  yet,  win  a  greater  victory 
for  our  party  than  we  have  ever  had  before." 

He  had  been  chairman  of  the  platform  committee 
in  the  national  convention  of  1884  and  framed  the 
strong  protective  platform  then  adopted.  In  his  second 
gubernatorial  campaign  he  advocated  a  protective  tar- 
iff more  strongly  than  ever,  and  when,  in  1896,  the 
people  chose  him  for  their  highest  office  by  an  over- 
whelming majority,  they  did  so  because  they  looked 
upon  him  as  the  living  embodiment  and  very  personifi- 
cation of  that  principle. 


216 

My  first  appearance  in  Congress  was  in  the  extra 
session  which  he  called  immediately  after  his  inaugu- 
ration. My  first  speech  was  made  and  my  first  vote 
cast  in  favor  of  the  Dingley  tariff  bill,  framed  along 
the  lines  of  the  McKinley  bill.  Whether  all  the  good 
things  that  followed  were  purely  the  result  of  that  en- 
actment need  not  be  discussed.  The  fact  remains  that, 
as  by  the  wand  of  the  magician,  the  clouds  of  adversity 
which  had  been  hanging  over  the  country  were  changed 
to  clouds  of  smoke  pouring  from  thousands  of  stacks 
all  over  the  land.  The  wheels  of  industry  began  to  re- 
volve and  the  spindles  to  hum;  the  sound  of  the  pick 
was  again  heard;  cars  moved  from  sidings  into  active 
use  upon  the  main  tracks ;  a  million  idle  men  were  put 
to  work;  soup  houses  were  abolished;  business  confi- 
dence was  restored,  and  all  went  merry  as  a  marriage 
bell. 

It  is  only  15  years  since  tariff  for  revenue  only 
was  supplemented  by  a  protective  tariff,  and  yet  within 
that  short  decade  and  a  half  the  amount  paid  annually 
in  wages  for  labor  has  more  than  doubled ;  the  annual 
value  of  agricultural  products  has  more  than  doubled ; 
the  business  of  our  railroads  and  the  products  of  our 
mines  and  of  our  factories  have  more  than  doubled; 
the  amount  of  money  in  circulation  in  the  country  has 
more  than  doubled ;  our  exports  and  imports  have  more 
than  doubled — in  brief,  the  great  volume  of  our  com- 
merce, both  foreign  and  domestic,  has  more  than 
doubled  in  that  short  time. 

Under  the  system  of  protection  to  American 
labor,  Pennsylvania  has  "waxed  fat  and  kicked" — 
sometimes,  but  never  at  protection.  That  you  believe 
in  it  is  manifest  from  the  name  of  your  organization — 
Young  Men's  Republican  Tariff  Club. 


217 

Since  William  McKinley  left  Congress  the  princi- 
ple of  protection  has  never  had  in  that  body  a  cham- 
pion more  loyal  or  more  able  than  Pennsylvania's  pres- 
ent representative  upon  the  Ways  and  Means  Commit- 
tee, your  own  Congressman  John  Dalzell. 

The  principle  of  protection  has  never  had  in  the 
Senate  two  more  zealous  advocates  than  our  own  pres- 
ent senators,  one  of  whom,  Senator  George  T.  Oliver,  is 
from  your  own  city. 

No  member  of  the  United  States  Senate  from 
Pennsylvania  has  ever  achieved  a  position  of  more  com- 
manding power  and  influence  in  that  body,  more  faith- 
fully supported  the  principles  and  policies  of  William 
McKinley,  than  the  present  chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Finance,  our  modest,  senior  senator,  your  guest  of 
honor  tonight,  Boies  Penrose. 

William  McKinley  devoted  many  weary  nights 
and  days  and  months  to  the  preparation  of  his  tariff 
bill.  He  submitted  to  the  House  an  elaborate  report, 
explaining,  in  great  detail,  all  its  provisions.  Upon  the 
floor  of  the  House  there  was  almost  endless  discussion 
of  the  bill  and  scores  of  amendments  were  offered. 

In  the  present  Congress  our  Democratic  friends 
forced  through  the  House  a  bill  affecting  billions  of 
capital,  millions  of  workingmen,  and  many  millions  of 
government  revenues.  It  had  been  hastily  thrown  to- 
gether. There  was  no  committee  report  explaining  its 
provisions.  It  was  jammed  through  the  House  under  a 
special  rule  which  out-Reeded  Reed  and  out-Cannoned 
Cannon. 

It  allowed  only  two  hours  to  either  side  for  de- 
bate and  permitted  no  amendments  whatever  to  be 
offered.  That  bill  embraced  the  cotton  schedule,  the 
steel  and  iron  schedule,  and  the  chemical  schedule.  Let 


218 

me  illustrate  its  crudeness  by  a  single  instance.  We 
have  had  for  many  years  an  internal  revenue  tax  of 
$1.20  per  gallon  upon  distilled  spirits  or  proof  alcohol. 
To  protect  that  we  have  an  import  duty  of  $2.25  per 
gallon,  and  upon  some  compounds  containing  alcohol, 
even  higher  duties.  Forgetting  all  about  the  internal 
revenue,  our  Democratic  statesmen  in  their  bill  re- 
duced the  import  duties  in  certain  paragraphs  in  the 
chemical  schedule,  so  that  the  government  would  have 
lost  the  internal  revenue  while  the  American  manu- 
facturer would  have  been  driven  out  of  business  and 
thousands  of  employes  thrown  out  of  work,  because  the 
internal  revenue  tax  upon  his  products  manufactured 
here  would  have  been  in  many  instances  more  than  10 
times  the  tariff  imposed  upon  his  importing  competitor. 
The  tariff  bills  passed  by  the  Democrats  at  the 
extra  session  of  Congress  were  so  carelessly  drawn 
that  in  many  particulars  there  was  great  uncertainty 
as  to  what  articles  were  covered  by  their  provisions 
and  no  living  expert  could  estimate  their  effect  upon 
the  revenues.  They  were  tariff  bills  for  politics  only, 
and  there  was  so  much  of  that  article  injected  into 
some  of  their  provisions  that  it  was  thought  by  some 
that  the  President  would  not  dare  refuse  to  sign  them. 
Fortunately  we  have  in  the  White  House  another  no- 
ble son  of  Ohio,  who  puts  principle  above  political  or 
personal  advantage,  and  just  as  those  monstrosities  of 
legislation  would  have  been  vetoed  by  William  Mc- 
Kinley  they  were  vetoed  by  our  wise  and  patriotic 
President,  William  H.  Taft. 

President  McKinley  would  have  vetoed  the  pro- 
vision for  the  recall  of  judges,  just  as  President  Taft 
vetoed  it  in  the  case  of  Arizona.  He  had  great  respect 
for  our  courts  and  believed  in  maintaining  their  inde- 


219 

pendence.  He  never  would  have  agreed  that  they 
should  be  placed  in  a  position  of  constant  fear  of  of- 
fending corporate  managers  or  political  bosses,  re- 
quiring them  to  trim  their  sails  and  adjust  their  de- 
cisions to  temporary  gusts  of  popular  favor. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  popular  sentiment  in 
favor  of  so  amending  the  federal  constitution  as  to  pro- 
vide for  the  election  of  United  States  senators  by  direct 
vote  of  the  people,  the  Democrats  in  Congress,  con- 
trolled by  the  south,  have  inseparably  interwoven  with 
that  proposition  another  amendment  taking  away  the 
power  which,  from  the  foundation  of  this  government, 
has  been  vested  in  Congress,  to  regulate  the  election  of 
both  senators  and  representatives.  President  McKin- 
ley  would  not  have  agreed  to  that.  He  agreed  with 
Thomas  Jefferson  that  the  nation  which  has  not  the 
right  to  preserve  the  purity  and  freedom  of  election  of 
its  highest  legislative  body  may  easily  be  dissolved; 
and  as  far  back  as  1879  he  declared  that,  'If  the  Con- 
stitution is  to  be  ignored;  if  free  and  honest  elections 
can  not  be  held  everywhere  throughout  the  country, 
free  government  is  as  effectively  overthrown  as  if  it 
had  been  done  by  the  sword.'  The  Democratic  measure 
now  pending  proposes  not  merely  to  ignore,  but  abso- 
lutely to  repeal,  that  constitutional  provision.  Presi- 
dent McKinley,  if  he  were  here  now,  would  certainly 
favor  the  Bristow  amendment,  which  limits  the  change 
in  the  Constitution  to  a  simple  provision  for  the  elec- 
tion of  senators  by  the  people,  leaving  to  Congress  the 
power  it  already  has  to  protect  those  elections  from 
fraud  and  corruption. 

If  we  except  Washington  and  Lincoln,  there  has 
been  no  president  under  whose  administration  so  much 
of  history  was  made  as  that  of  William  McKinley.  The 


220 

map  of  the  world  was  changed.  The  flag  was  planted 
in  another  hemisphere,  there  to  remain  the  symbol  of 
law,  of  progress,  and  of  peace,  and  to  wave  in  blessing 
over  peoples  who  had  long  been  oppressed.  Hawaii 
and  Tutuila  were  annexed.  As  a  result  of  the  war  with 
Spain,  we  acquired  Porto  Rico,  the  Philippines  and 
Guam,  and  Cuba  was  set  free.  Difficult  and  delicate 
international  questions  of  the  utmost  importance  were 
handled  with  consummate  skill  and  wonderful  suc- 
cess. The  task  of  tranquillizing  and  governing  our  new 
possessions  was  successfully  accomplished.  During 
these  strenuous  times  the  eight-hour  law,  which  he  had 
advocated  in  Congress,  did  not  apply  to  the  president, 
whose  labors  frequently  continued  beyond  the  midnight 
hour.  None  who  knew  him  in  those  trying  days  can 
ever  forget  that  in  the  midst  of  his  cares  and  troubles 
and  responsibilities  he  never  for  one  instant  failed  to 
display,  the  wonderful  gentleness,  exquisite  courtesy 
and  infinite  patience  which  characterized  his  whole 
life,  or  to  bestow  upon  his  aged  mother  and  invalid 
wife  that  tender,  lovi,^  care  the  memory  of  which  is  a 
precious  legacy  to  every  American  citizen. 

The  world  is  better  because  William  McKinley 
lived  in  it,  and  mankind  is  lifted  to  a  higher  plane  in 
contemplation  of  his  example  in  the  face  of  death. 

Time  will  not  dim  the  lustre  of  his  achievements, 
but  in  the  ever-lengthening  vista  of  receding  years  the 
figure  of  William  McKinley  will  stand  forth  more  and 
more  prominent  in  his  country's  history. 

The  light  of  a  life,  so  pure,  so  loving,  and  so  in 
touch  with  our  common  humanity  will  shine  forever 
and  influence  for  good  the  government  of  nations,  and 
the  character  of  men,  until  onward  years  shall  cease  to 
roll,  and  time  into  eternity  shall  merge. 


Courtesy,  The  Courtney  Studio, 
Canton,  Ohio. 

THE  McKINLEY  MONUMENT,  CANTON,  OHIO. 

(Rear  view.) 

THE  BODIES   OF  McKINLEY  AND   MRS.    McKINLEY 

REST  IN   A  TOMB  OF  MARBLE  IN 

THE  INTERIOR. 


WILLIAM  McKINLEY 

MAJOR  CHARLES  R.  MILLER 

This  address  was  delivered  at  a  tri-county  banquet 
at  Bellevue,  Ohio,  held  on  McKinley  Day,  January 
29th,  1908. 

Among  the  speakers  were  Judge  John  H.  Doyle  and 
Hubert  B.  Fuller. 

Toastmaster,  Sol  M.  Wolf,  introduced  the  speaker. 

*      *      * 

"As  thrills  of  long  hushed  tone 

Live  in  the  viol,  so  our  souls  grow  fine 
With  keen  vibrations  from  the  touch  divine 
Of  noble  natures  gone." 

We  find  it  written  on  the  pages  of  our  National 
History  that  on  the  29th  day  of  January,  1843,  in  the 
Town  of  Niles,  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  there  was  born  a 
son — the  father,  a  furnace  master,  the  mother,  a  noble 
Christian  woman.  We  then  read  of  the  child  rapidly 
passing  from  the  age  of  boyhood  to  that  of  manhood ; 
his  conduct  marked  only  by  his  observation  of  the 
Divine  rule:  "Honor  thy  father  and  mother  in  the 
days  of  thy  youth." 

Voices  of  discontent  are  heard  in  the  land.  Grim 
war  stalks  about,  leaving  death  and  carnage  to  mark 
its  pathway.  'Tis  then,  our  young  man  deserts  the 
hearthstone  of  his  youth,  to  join  in  the  defense  of  his 
country's  cause.  The  rapidly  shifting  scenes  of  war 
disclose  to  our  view,  a  host  of  tired  and  hungry  men  in 
line  of  battle.  Suddenly  a  shout  goes  up!  We  see 
amid  the  shower  of  shot  and  shell  a  wagon  laden  with 
provisions  winding  its  way  to  the  front.  Antietam 
was  not  lost,  and  the  young  commissary  sergeant  was 
made  a  lieutenant.  Again,  in  the  beautiful  valley  of 

223 


224 

the  Shenandoah  when  General  Early  had  driven  back 
the  shattered  and  broken  lines  of  blue,  our  young  lieu- 
tenant was  the  first  to  rally  and  reform  the  Union  lines, 
that  the  matchless  ride  of  Sheridan  from  Winchester 
might  not  be  in  vain.  General  Early,  the  victorious, 
became  the  vanquished,  and  our  lieutenant,  a  captain. 
As  the  distinguished  ex-senator  from  Nebraska  has  so 
beautifully  said: 

"The  years  that  others  gave  to  educational  pur- 
suits he  gave  to  his  country.  His  Alma  Mater  was  the 
tented  field.  He  graduated  in  a  class  of  heroes.  His 
diploma  bears  the  same  signature  as  does  the  Emanci- 
pation Proclamation." 

Enlisted  a  private,  honorably  discharged  a  major, 
our  young  man,  now  in  the  fullness  of  manhood,  takes 
up  the  duties  of  peace. 

In  the  halls  of  the  Nation's  Congress  we  hear  his 
voice  raised  to  advocate  the  cause  of  our  national  de- 
velopment, independence  and  honor,  but  no  voice  in  all 
the  land  is  raised  to  question  his  fair  name. 

Then  a  national  gathering  of  the  great  men  of 
the  Republican  party  is  called,  and  we  next  see  our 
hero  silently  treading  the  wine-press  alone,  shaping 
into  words  the  loyal  thoughts  which  enabled  him  to 
say: 

"I  cannot  consistently,  with  my  own 
views  of  my  personal  integrity,  consent  or 
seem  to  consent,  to  permit  my  name  to  be 
used  as  a  candidate  before  this  convention; 
I  could  not  respect  myself  if  I  could  find  it  in 
my  heart  to  do,  or  permit  to  be  done,  that 
which  could  be  proven  as  a  suspicion  that  I 
wavered  in  loyalty  to  Ohio,  or  my  devotion 
to  the  chief  of  her  choice,  and  the  chief  of 
mine.  I  do  request,  I  demand  that  no  dele- 
gate who  would  not  cast  reflection  upon  me, 
shall  cast  a  ballot  for  me." 


225 

The  thrill  of  those  electrical  words,  which  marked 
the  greatness  of  him  who  was  great  enough  to  thrust 
aside  ambition,  that  his  loyalty  and  purity  might  not 
be  questioned,  had  scarcely  ceased,  when  we  find  him 
at  Atlanta,  boldly  calling  upon  the  men  of  the  South 
to  aid  in  maintaining  the  principles  of  protection. 
Summoned  from  Atlanta  to  the  sickbed  of  a  wife,  to 
whom  his  devotion  had  been  without  precedent,  he 
again  throws  aside  ambition  and  political  prominence, 
that  he  might  nurse  her  back  to  life. 

Rapidly  the  years  now  pass  and  more  quickly  the 
scenes  are  shifted.  Defeated  for  Congress,  but  nomi- 
nated and  elected  Governor  of  Ohio,  and  permanent 
chairman  of  the  great  convention  at  Minneapolis,  and 
again  the  scenes  of  Chicago  are  repeated.  His  tri- 
umphal tour  from  state  to  state  that  fall  was  without 
a  parallel  in  our  history.  Again  nominated  for  Gov- 
ernor and  elected  by  a  phenomenal  majority,  and  we 
are  led  up  to  the  crowning  event,  the  St.  Louis  Con- 
vention. 

Can  one  ever  forget  the  mighty  wave  of  applause 
which  echoed  and  re-echoed  throughout  that  vast  hall, 
reaching  every  portion  of  our  land,  when  the  senator 
from  Ohio  let  fall  the  name  of  him  of  whom  we  speak? 
Was  there  ever  another  such  a  campaign?  Visiting 
delegations  without  number,  each  greeted  by  the  man 
of  the  hour,  with  voice  so  quiet  and  speech  so  master- 
ful, that  the  pulse  of  the  nation  became  quiet  and  soon 
beat  in  unison  with  him.  Labor  was  not  crucified 
upon  a  cross  of  gold,  but  our  factories  were  re-opened 
giving  employment  to  our  own  people  and  the  silver 
of  the  world  was  coined  at  home. 

In  the  four  preceding  years  the  memory  of  which 
now  lingers  as  an  unpleasant  dream,  factories  became 


226 

silent,  investments  shrank,  pale  faced  men  walked  the 
streets  in  search  of  employment,  young  heads  became 
prematurely  white,  whole  families  went  hungry  to  bed, 
and  homes  and  reason  were  lost,  but  the  factories  of 
Europe  were  busy,  and  fleet  ships  landed  on  our  shores 
the  products  of  foreign  factories  that  our  own  people 
should  have  made.  Distress  and  want  were  every- 
where. 

A  patient  and  long  suffering  people  spoke  in  no 
uncertain  voice,  and  our  hero,  who  had  always  ad- 
vocated the  cause  of  national  development,  independ- 
ence and  honor,  was  elected  President.  Congress  was 
convened  in  15  days  after  his  inauguration,  and  in 
spite  of  an  adverse  majority  in  the  Senate  the  Dingley 
Tariff  Bill  was  passed.  The  fires  were  re-kindled  in 
the  factories,  capital  was  reassured,  men  no  longer 
went  hungry  to  bed,  and  faith  again  heard  the  rustling 
of  returning  prosperity.  Everywhere  men  became 
happy  in  their  employment;  the  music  of  the  shuttle 
as  it  traveled  back  and  forth,  made  harmony  with  the 
deep  and  ponderous  bass  of  the  steam  hammer,  and 
the  only  cloud  upon  the  horizon  was  the  smoke  from 
the  busy  furnaces  and  factories.  The  business  world 
became  active  with  new  enterprise.  Railroads  were 
rebuilt  and  new  lines  projected.  The  silence  of  the 
night  was  broken  by  the  rolling  of  vast  caravans  of 
freight  on  their  way  to  the  seaboard  for  shipment  to 
foreign  markets,  and  the  promises  to  the  American 
people  were  redeemed. 

Then  came  the  Spanish  War.  Cuba  was  liberated 
from  the  domination  of  an  effete  monarchy.  Porto 
Rico  became  a  happy  and  prosperous  country,  dotted 
all  over  with  American  school  houses.  Anarchy  and 
insurrection  were  suppressed  in  the  Philippines  and 


227 

the  largest  measure  of  civil  government  possible  es- 
tablished. 

Next  came  the  Chinese  insurrection,  and  the 
United  States,  first  to  scale  the  walls  of  Peking,  was 
the  first  to  dictate  the  policy  of  retirement,  and 
through  its  invincible  arms  and  matchless  diplomacy 
became  a  world-wide  power,  and  the  markets  of  the 
world  were  open  to  the  products  of  our  manufactories. 

No  other  executive  since  the  time  of  Lincoln  has 
been  called  upon  to  confront  so  many  and  difficult 
problems,  and  no  executive  in  our  history  has  handled 
the  problems  of  his  administration  with  more  skill 
and  masterful  tact  and  Christian  spirit,  than  he  of 
whom  we  speak.  Surely  peace,  contentment,  and  hap- 
piness seemed  about  to  dawn  upon  our  people,  for,  as 
was  said  at  Buffalo,  "Our  victories,  however  great  in 
war,  were  none  the  less  in  peace."  That  splendid  re- 
view of  the  past  and  magnificent  pronouncement  of  a 
policy  for  the  future,  which  now  reads,  in  the  light  of 
subsequent  events,  as  a  benediction,  had  scarcely  been 
completed  when  the  assassin's  bullet  struck  down  its 
author,  the  most  universally  beloved  of  all  the  nation. 

All  the  world  stood  still  and  prayed  that  this  cup 
might  pass  from  us,  but  it  was  God's  way,  and  Presi- 
dent McKinley  passed  from  among  us.  A  kindly 
Christian  gentleman,  a  great  statesman,  a  patriotic 
citizen,  a  man  of  the  people,  a  man  among  men,  dying 
as  he  lived,  "in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,"  passed  to  his 
reward. 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  nations  had  man- 
kind so  universally  mourned.  Never  before  did  men 
so  universally  join  in  the  singing  of  a  Christian  hymn. 
Never  before  had  the  great  nations  of  the  world  stood 
still,  as  a  coffin  was  carried  to  the  grave. 


228 

We  may  not  be  permitted  to  part  the  curtains  of 
the  future  and  see  what  Providence  has  in  store  in 
the  forward  movement  of  nations,  for  this  great  peo- 
ple, united  as  never  before  by  the  death  of  a  great 
President,  but  whatever  it  may  be,  it  is  safe  to  predict 
that  our  flag  will  be  found  in  the  van,  but  little  lower 
than  the  cross. 

We  thank  God  for  the  life  that  has  been  lived,  for 
the  example  that  has  been  set,  for  the  friendship  that 
has  been  formed,  for  the  memory  that  remains,  and 
for  that  other  great  son  of  the  nation  who  has  the 
courage  of  conviction  to  carry  out  the  principles  and 
policies  of  the  dead — that  William  McKinley  may  live 
forever  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen. 


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